


Two Angels and a Dream

by psychicdreams



Series: Illdicia [1]
Category: No Fandom
Genre: Angels, Demons, F/M, Illdicia, M/M, Magic, Original Characters - Freeform, Original Story - Freeform, Original World, Past Mental Illness, Slight Steampunk, Suicide, Three-way Relationship, Very Mature Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 18:05:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1908636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychicdreams/pseuds/psychicdreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Dreamwalking is a way to give answers. If you saw your past, then that means there must have been something that you wanted the answer to. That answer was inside you, the magic was just giving you the means to see it."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an original story of mine that I've been writing, though I haven't touched it since 2012. I'm going to attempt to continue it. It has very mature themes, so I'm warning now and explicit with both sex and violence. You have been warned.

_"But Father, I'm telling the truth! They're right there!"_

_His father sighed and knelt down in front of the pouting young boy. "Kaito, you're too old to have imaginary friends anymore. Do you want to be laughed at by the other boys?"_

_"You don't understand!" he cried, and ran out of the house in frustration._

Kaito smiled a little at the memory. He couldn't make his father see them when he was nine, but once he'd reached eleven, they could make themselves appear as real and solid to anyone. Then nobody questioned him when he said he had an angel and a demon as friends. They still questioned why him, but that was one he didn't have an answer to. It wasn't as if he didn't wonder, because he did, but he didn't really feel any urgency to find out. So long as Gemma and Marduk didn't go anywhere, did it really matter _why_ they were there?

An arm threw itself around his shoulder and Kaito looked up to the taller Gemma. "What were you thinking about?" The demon flashed his trademark grin, and he spotted just slightly more pointed canine teeth than normal. If that wasn't a dead giveaway as to what he was, the huge black, feathered wings on his back would. Gemma's whole face was lean and while he didn't have horns, but he did have an intricate black and red tattoo that distinctively triangular in shape that came to a point above his nose and flared as it went up toward his hairline.

"When I was a kid," Kaito told him, still internally a tad annoyed that he was he only came to Gemma's ear in height. That long black hair draped itself over them as he leaned in close.

"Really?"

"Stop looking disappointed."

Marduk's deep voice was next to his right ear as the angel also wrapped an arm around him, this time Kaito's waist. His hair was pure, shock white and down to his knees. Just as white were his wings and he was, if possible, even taller than Gemma. Kaito had never considered himself a slouch in the height department, he was almost six-foot, but somehow both the angel and demon managed to make him look small. Marduk's visage was handsome in an unearthly way and his skin was definitely a few shades darker than Gemma.

"Disappointed? _Me_? I bet _you're_ the one disappointed that it's not something naughty!"

"You're projecting your own thoughts onto me again, I see."

Though Marduk and Gemma always seemed to argue, Kaito didn't believe they hated each other. There wasn't any real heat when they argued, even passionately. "For your information, I was thinking about that time when I was nine and I couldn't make father believe you two were real."

"Well I still say if you let me throw something around the room, he'd believe it in an instant," Gemma muttered, leaning most of his weight on Kaito's left shoulder, making it difficult to walk.

"You honestly think there's any way in Heaven that I'd let _you_ start throwing things?" Marduk replied, leaning further over on his right to glare into Gemma's red eyes.

"Guys, it's really hard to walk like this," he complained goodnaturedly.  
"I could carry you," the demon teased, leaning so close that Kaito blushed a little. Despite all these years, he was not used to their affection for him. It didn't help that he was desperately trying to hide his desire for them because he was sure that wasn't what they meant by it. They'd known him since he was a child, they'd taught him how to masturbate even, there was no way that they'd view him as a potential lover. Probably more as a little brother, if anything.

"Nobody's carrying me anywhere!" he argued as they finally stumbled to a halt when their arms tightened around him. "And seriously, we need to make it to the next city by nightfall! I need some more bullets for my gun!"

Guns were a fairly new invention and he'd been fascinated with them since he'd found one on the body of a bandit he'd killed. He was still far better with the sword strapped to his waist, taught to him by both Gemma and Marduk ever since he was little, but the gun was great. Unfortunately, he'd learned, that the ammunition necessary was hard to come by outside of the big cities. Smaller towns often had only heard of the gun by rough description, much less having seen one in person.

"I've heard that a lot of the really rich households have started adding stuff like this to their house," Gemma commented, grabbing the gun from the holster on his thigh and studying it. "A heater for the bath without having to use magic or light a fire to get the water hot. That kind of stuff. They even said they were working on things like this to replace horses!"

"I don't see how they're going to do that," Marduk replied with a skeptical white eyebrow raised.

"Well if they can make everything they _say_ they've made, then I don't doubt that they'll figure it out eventually," Kaito said, grabbing the gun back and effectively ending the discussion when he squirmed out from four arms. "Now, let's get moving!"

The road was well-traveled and more than once, he walked alongside traveling merchants. His eyes grew wide when the gem trader allowed him to see some of what he was carrying.

"Say, son..."

"Yes?"

"Those two you've got with you...you say they're an angel and a demon?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Well I couldn't afford any guards and I'm a walking target." He gestured to the horse he was leading, pulling a covered cart. "I'll let you pick your choice of gem if you tell them to guard me all the way to the city."

He'd never owned anything so expensive in his life, so Kaito couldn't really refuse. Besides, they were heading toward the same place. "Sure, they'll help, but I'm good at fighting myself, you know."

The merchant eyed him and then looked to the much taller angel and demon. "Sure you are, son, but they're angels and demons. I'd feel safer with them than just with a regular human. No offense."

That was always the problem traveling with Gemma and Marduk. People underestimated him, but there was no point in arguing. No matter even if he said that they had taught him since he was seven, no one would believe him. In fact, Gemma and Marduk _liked_ it when people underestimated him and focused on attacking elsewhere. He knew it was supposed to be a good thing, but it still rankled a bit. He was almost six foot and he had a good deal of muscles too! He had also failed to meet anyone other than Gemma or Marduk to ever beat him in a sword fight. That wasn't even accounting for the sheer power of magic that he had, something he avoided using if he could considering it was quite...flashy.

It didn't take more than two hours to reach the city gates, just as the sun was starting to shift down toward the horizon. He wandered after the merchant so he could get his jewel and just smiled as the man asked repeatedly where Gemma and Marduk were. The two were firmly ensconced in his soul at the moment because it was easier to walk without an angel and a demon's winged bulk in a crowded area. He wished that they could communicate telepathically, but once Gemma and Marduk retreated, he was unable to see or hear them. He knew they were in his soul, but he couldn't feel them there.

"So what do you want?"

Kaito didn't know anything about gems, so he didn't know which were the really most priceless ones to get. That was probably the reason that the merchant allowed him to choose, since he didn't really have to worry about losing a very valuable gem. It was a pretty bad assumption to make, but in this case, he just happened to be right.

A sapphire caught his eye. It was a deeper blue than the ocean, completely unfinished. It wasn't shaped in any way, but he loved the color. "That one."

The man blinked. "You sure? I haven't had a chance to get that one carved and finished."

"It's fine. Really. I want that one."

"Okay then, take it."

Kaito pocketed the jewel and left the store. He didn't see a place that might sell bullets, so the next best thing would be an Inn. If there was one person in the entire city that would know, it would be an innkeeper. It was almost part of their business to know almost everything. A pleasant smile to a female guard got him directions to The Flying Eagle.

It was a large inn, probably one of the more expensive ones, but he had the coin for it. He might not look like much, his custom leather coat and clothing dirty, but he kept good track of how much he had. So far no sticky fingers had managed to make off with his coin purse thanks to his reflexes.

"What do you need?"

"A room for the night."

"One bed?"

Kaito thought about it, but sighed after a minute. It wouldn't matter if he got a room with two or three beds, he'd end up crammed between Marduk and Gemma regardless, other beds totally ignored. "If you've got a fairly large one, that'd be great."

The innkeeper gave him an odd look, but just shook his head. "You got it. Twenty gold."

As he handed over his money, he asked, "Do you know of any place in the city that sells bullets?"

The man's eyebrows rose and his gaze fell down to the gun holstered against his thigh. "So you got one of them things, do ya? Can't say as I see the point in them, but there is one place I know of that might have what you need. Go to the marketplace, then look for the blacksmith. There's a street to the left of the storefront. Walk a few steps then look to your left. It's a small shanty in back. It's only open in the evening."

Kaito nodded. "Thanks, but...why would it be hidden away? I heard that places like that are some of the most successful. They can charge whatever they want, right?"

"Well, yeah, but only the really rich can afford that shit. If you've got it, you probably stole it," Kaito frowned at that, "so the best customers are royalty or nobles that are infatuated with the stuff and have nothing better to do. So unless you've got your shop in the rich quarter, you're not gonna sell much to afford an actual store."

"Then why make a shop here?"

The innkeeper scratched behind his ear. "I know the guy. He was a gutter rat when he was younger, not good for anything, and then suddenly, without any warning, he's got this huge talent with that kind of stuff. So he scraped together enough money to make a deal with the blacksmith to use his equipment to make the stuff. That's why he's mostly open in the evenings and nights."

Kaito thanked the man and left, not even dropping his stuff in his room first. He wanted the light of the sun, what was left of it, still around so he could see where he was going...and if there were any muggers around trying to steal his stuff. After all, a gun was expensive and worth chancing the person who owned it just to fence it.

The shanty the innkeeper talked about wasn't as bad as he thought it was. It had four walls and a roof, and didn't look like a shack. When he entered, he noted there was a door that led right into the forge at the back of the blacksmith's. It must be an extension, probably a storage place originally that was being rented from the smith.

"Can I help you?"

He turned and his eyebrows rose to his hairline. He had expected an adult when the innkeeper had said he was a former gutter rat, but he was still a boy, probably only fourteen. "I was told that I could buy some ammunition here." He pulled the gun from its holster and set it on the desk.

"Man, you've really worn it down." The boy frowned, holding the gun reverently. "I can sell you bullets...if you let me repair this, take care of it."

"I can't possibly afford--"

"I'll do the maintenance for free, if just to make sure that it's taken care of!"

Kaito stared at him. "You really like guns, don't you?"

"I love 'em."

"He's really good at it too."

He didn't even have a chance to turn around to see who it was, when black wings were in his vision. "Well, well. Zairek, if I'm not mistaken."

Kaito felt heat at his back and arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind. Marduk too? This place wasn't very big and now it was cramped with the five of them in there. He couldn't even see around Gemma to who he was talking to.

"Gemma! I thought you'd died!" the demon, he assumed at any rate, said sounding shocked.

"Nope, still alive." There was a tense silence, and then it was broken by Gemma moving forward and hugging someone. Now he could see, the other demon was grinning ear to ear. He looked similar to Gemma, except that Kaito couldn't see his wings and his skin was a lot darker in color.

"Great! Damn, we all thought you'd died after that whole thing with the--"

Gemma cut him off immediately, much to Kaito's surprise. "Well I don't have my body, but I'm still alive."

"I don't understand..."

"Marduk and I are attached to Kaito's soul. It just...happened. So where he is, is where I am." Zairek's red eyes widened, but when he was about to say something, Gemma continued. "So, you're here, huh? Did you make a deal with the kid?"

Zairek grinned wolfishly at the young boy, who blushed and went back to working on the gun. "Yeah, he sold his soul to me...and his body." Marduk shifted in disapproval, but Kaito's hand squeezing his wrist kept him silent. "He loves guns and wanted to work with them, but had no talent. So in exchange, he's a wizard with 'em now. Can do things you wouldn't believe. He'll get rich eventually too."

Gemma eyed Zairek and nodded after a minute. "Good deal then."

"Can you come back tomorrow?" the boy asked, interrupting the conversation. "I need time."

"...All right," Kaito said after a minute, not approving of the deal anymore than Marduk, but willing to let it be. It had nothing to do with him and was the boy's choice. He just wished that sex wasn't involved. That was like prostitution, wasn't it?

"You don't approve, huh?" Gemma asked him as they stepped out into the night. "Don't be too hard on him. He did what he had to, if he wanted to get the kid."

"What do you mean?"

"That deal is piddly, and so's the kid's soul. He's not exactly 'pure' soul material, and that brings in the prestige down in hell. I also know Zairek. He'd probably watched the kid since he was younger and when it looked like he could get a deal out of him, he pounced on it...probably about six months ago. That's how long feeling of the demon magic's been in place."

Kaito relaxed a little. "Well, so long as it's not...you know..."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. You think I don't know you? Now come on, I want to get you into bed," Gemma teased.

He blushed. "Shut up!" It wasn't flirting, it was teasing. Gemma always did that, ever since he was younger, which meant it couldn't be flirting.

Thankfully Gemma and Marduk weren't in sight when he made his way to his room, otherwise he'd have to answer some very awkward questions.


	2. Chapter 2

Marduk's look was even more disapproving when he saw the small room. Kaito had asked for a room with a big bed, but apparently this was the best they had. He wasn't picky though, not like Marduk and Gemma were. It didn't really matter too much to Kaito, he could live through anything. He was the son of a former knight turned farmer that had a small plot of land. The house he'd grown up in had been small and the only thing that made it bearable was that he'd had no siblings. Not that his parents hadn't tried. Kaito had always kind of wanted a sister or brother, but he'd been an only child, which was a rare thing in a small town like that where the more children you had, the more there were to help you with the farm.

Marduk and Gemma weren't like that though. They had never gotten used to his home and had, more than once, complained under their breaths about the cramped nature of the place. "What's the matter, Marduk?"

The angel glanced at him and then around again. "It's too small."

"I realize that it can be a tight squeeze with you two and your wings, but otherwise it's actually a pretty big room."

"That ain't it," Gemma told him, dropping down next to him on the bed. "You deserve at least better than a shoebox...and you keep picking them. Your bedroom back home, this room here."

Kaito frowned at them both. "I realize that you two don't know much about the need for money, but I do. I can't afford to stay in expensive rooms. Also, there's nothing wrong with my room at home. In fact, my friends envied me because I didn't have to _share_ it with three other siblings. And--" he raised his voice a little when Gemma was about to interrupt, "I wouldn't have even spent this much on a room with a bed like this if it weren't for you two."

"What?" Marduk asked him in surprise.

"This was pretty expensive, by my standards. Twenty gold a night? If I stay a lot, that'll eat through what money I have. But I know you two. We need a big bed if I'm going to breathe at all tonight when I'm sleeping because you both like to cram on either side of me at night. Even when I rented rooms with two or more beds, you'd never use them _or_ let me sleep by myself."

"I'm...I'm sorry," Marduk muttered, as if he hadn't realized what they were doing was causing problems. Even Gemma looked vaguely contrite...vaguely.

"It's not that I mind!" Kaito rushed. Far from it! "It's just that I'm thinking of our comfort here. I don't know if my soul is uncomfortable for you two to sleep in, but--"

"Your soul is fine," Gemma told him, flopping back on the bed and reaching up to play with the long mahogany braid of Kaito's hair as it flapped around his waist. "It's just that we're used to being like this. We live in your soul, but that was a fairly recent development. I'm comfortable like this, but your soul is kind of...empty of entertainment? It's all dark and just...you know, it's really hard to describe. It's like you're in nothingness and yet it's not nothingness. It's fill to the brim with you and your power. We're just along for the ride, really."

"I don't get it," he admitted freely. Never once had either of them made him feel embarrassed about not understanding something. In fact, he didn't remember feeling embarrassed about anything with the two. They were, perhaps, the two most uncritical people he had ever met. Sometimes he felt like he had been raised more by them than his parents. "And...my soul is dark? Does that mean...I'm evil or something?"

"I'm not surprised you don't understand, as that was the most ridiculous and useless explanation that I have ever heard," Marduk said dryly, moving to sit on Kaito's left. "Pathetic. Kaito, you're not evil. As a human, your soul has both light and dark. We are angel and demon, and so therefore, we rest in areas that are more suited to our natures. For example, were I to describe what I 'saw' to you, it would be an endless expanse of light. As for sleeping...we do not sleep in your soul, Kaito, because your power is constantly magically replenishing any energy we might lose. We can only sleep while we are materialized like this."

"So...if you don't materialize, you're stuck sitting in an endless expanse of either light or dark, and that's...it? You can't talk to each other, there's nothing to do? Anything?"

"Stop worrying," Gemma told him, poking at his back. "We can talk to each other fine. It's easy to find each other, no matter how big your soul might be."

"I didn't say that I, for example, couldn't go to the darker parts of your soul, just that I find myself, as an angel, more comfortable in the lighter areas. However, most of the time, both Gemma and I stay in that mix of your soul where both light and dark meet. It's, perhaps, the most comfortable of all after having spent so much time in the mortal world."

Kaito blinked as he realized that Gemma had been working on releasing his braid. He gave a playful glare and attempted to swat the limber fingers away as he asked, "So what do you guys do in my soul then?"

Gemma and Marduk exchanged glances and then away awkwardly. "Well, you know. We talk," Gemma muttered.

"And? Talking can't possibly take up every moment," Kaito argued.

"He is hardly the best conversationalist," Marduk said, but it sounded awkward, as if he'd had to hunt for a witty comment.

"What aren't you two telling me?"

"It's getting late and you walked all day, so shouldn't you sleep?"

"Yeah, get down here," Gemma agreed, all but pouncing on the statement as if it was a lifeline. He yanked Kaito down and there was a great deal of shifting until, once again, the mortal found himself with Gemma holding him from behind and Marduk in front.

"Fine, fine. I get it. You don't want to tell me." He couldn't deny that he wondered if, just maybe, they were doing something _physical_ and if it was what he was thinking of, he was jealous. Kaito had never seen either have sex before, with anyone, but that didn't mean anything if they were spending that time with each other. Did they, god forbid, love each other and viewed Kaito as a son? He hoped not, because he _certainly_ didn't view them as fathers. "So what caused the 'recent development' where you two got stuck in my soul? And how?"

That reaction was even more strained as they looked at each other silently. Kaito lifted his head to look at them, but Gemma's hand forced it back down. "Go to sleep, for Satan's sake, and stop asking questions for today!"

"But--"

"Sleep," Marduk commanded in an equally pleading tone.

Kaito sighed at his inability to refuse the two and eventually snuggled down into the two pairs of arms that held him.

~~  
 _He was disoriented at first, fighting off pain centered right between his eyebrows. He had to blink repeatedly to bring everything into focus. Concerned at the sense of imbalance plaguing him, Kaito braced himself against the nearest wall. When his vision cleared, he noted that what he was leaning against was a stone wall. Wait, how could that be? He'd just gone to sleep in an inn room with Marduk and Gemma._

_His steps were soundless as he wandered down the corridor he'd found himself in. Only once in awhile did he see anyone and those were usually what he assumed were servants, given their somewhat shabby and uniform appearance. Was he in some lord's castle?_

_"Where is the Lady Sahir?"_

_The voice that spoke came from an older man who had more gray than brown in his hair. On his head was an elaborate crown and the young servant girl gasped, dropping to her knees in front of him in prostration. "She is in her rooms, Your Majesty."_

_The King didn't say thank you or anything, just walked past her as if she were no inconsequential. Kaito frowned and tried to help the woman up, only to find that his hand went right through her arm. Was he...not real? Had he somehow managed to find himself teleported and incorporeal somewhere else or was this a dream?_

_He decided the dream idea suited him better than suddenly finding new powers that could teleport and discombobulate him, and then followed after the King. Why would he be dreaming something like this though? He didn't normally think dreams about rude kings were particularly entertaining._

_A door was already open, indicating where the man had disappeared to, so he stepped inside. The majority of the room's color was green and white, not to mention highly spacious. It was the richest and most beautiful room that he'd ever seen. It was clearly only one of a suite of rooms, a sitting one by the look. There was a door on the left hand wall from where he'd entered and a fireplace on the right. The furniture looked expensive and comfortable, thick cushions that made him want to curl up and sleep._

_"How are you today, Lady Sahir?"_

_Kaito turned his attention to the King, resplendent in robes of silk, just as a voice spoke in return. Hers was matter-of-fact, but somewhat cold. He couldn't help shivering, as if it had infected the air. He didn't like her one bit. There was something...off about that voice._

_"I told you to not call me that. I am neither a prophet nor anything else so special. Call me Eri or nothing at all."_

_"But it is a title of respect in this country."_

_There was a pause and the rustle of fabric. "I do not desire your respect."_

_"Then what do you desire?"_

_Despite his growing sense of dread, Kaito couldn't help a morbid curiosity. He stepped forward, around the King, to look at who owned such a terrifyingly beautiful and icy voice._

_"I desire nothing that you can give me."_

_She was a beautiful woman, almost otherworldly. Her hair was a beautiful satin blonde, natural looking waves running down her back and left completely unbound. Though she was dressed in silken blues with golden embroidery, clearly of the highest quality, she seemed to not care at all about it. It almost felt as if she could be naked in front of the King and **still** not care at all. _

_"What would make you happy, Lady Sahir?"_

_"To die."_

_A chill went down Kaito's spine when he heard that, that sense of dread growing. Eri's voice was clear as a bell. He couldn't have heard wrong. Kaito found himself moving backwards, putting distance. Something about the way that angelic, sultry face, so devoid of emotion, made him think of tightly coiled anguish...and rage. A simmering anger probably buried beneath everything else. How he knew this, with such a bone-deep certainty, he didn't understand. He just **knew** , in the same way that he knew that this girl was very, very dangerous if pushed the wrong way. _

_"Now that would be a real pity, wouldn't you say, a beauty like that dying?"_

_Kaito whirled at the sound of that voice. "Gemma!" he gasped, but nobody seemed to hear him._

_Gemma looked exactly as he had when they'd gone to sleep in the inn that night. His wings were displayed prominently, like a badge of pride, and he sauntered in as if he lived there. Just behind him was Marduk, throwing a frown at the demon. Instinctively he reached out, trying to get their attention, but Marduk just walked right through him as if he didn't exist._

_"Well now that Angel Marduk and Demon Gemma are here, I shall take my leave. I hope you feel better soon."_

_The King departed, casting a worried glance over his shoulder at the three. Gemma wrapped one arm around Eri's shoulders from behind, but there seemed to be a faint hesitation to it, as if he wasn't sure it would be allowed. Despite the familiarity there seemed to be between them, Marduk and Gemma acted cautious, like they were always testing the waters with what would be allowed or not._

_"Eri, is something wrong?" Marduk asked, his voice soft and respectful. He hesitated once and then finally reached out to put his hand on her shoulder._

_"No. I am the same as always."_

_"You still wish to die?"_

_"...No. Dying implies that the body no longer breathes. I wish to cease to exist. However, I could not explain that to the King and have him understand."_

_Gemma and Marduk exchanged glances and Eri turned her head away. For one brief, dizzying moment, Kaito swore that their eyes met--_

He bolted up in bed, panting and gasping. His motion dislodged the arms that had held him. His green eyes darted around the room, reassured that it was the same place he'd gone to sleep in. When their eyes had met, _if_ they had he told himself, he'd felt such a shiver of fear that he just...couldn't explain. It wasn't as if the girl seemed insane, but almost like she knew he was there, which couldn't be possible if it was all a dream!

"Kaito? What's the matter?" Gemma propped himself up on his elbow. "You're white as a sheet."

"I just..." What was that? Why would he dream about some girl with Marduk and Gemma? Now that he was awake, that sense of fear was dissipating and being replaced with an irrational sense of jealousy. That dream was probably an extension of his frustration, his subconscious showing his fears that of course Marduk and Gemma would like a pretty girl, not a guy like him. Sometimes he hated his subconscious. Did it have to give him a message he already knew so bluntly? It was easier to write off the dream as such, so that was what he did. Better that than some of the alternatives.

"Just what?" Marduk prompted, sitting up.

"It's nothing," he muttered, looking away from both of them. Damn, that dream was depressing as hell.

"Yeah right! You're tense as a bowstring. Like right...here!" Gemma pressed his thumbs into the base of his spine, causing him to gasp and arch at the sensation. His fingers were rotating just the right way and his eyes closed instinctively to revel in the sensation. The demon was being very careful not to let his clawed fingernails break skin and hurt Kaito.

"Gemma..." he muttered, a vague protest. He didn't want to be soothed right then. He was too vulnerable, too depressed over his own thoughts that his romantic feelings would go nowhere, and they were unknowingly taking advantage of that. It would be _so_ easy to misread them right then!

"Shhh, just relax and enjoy it," Marduk murmured, his voice deep and resonating against his ear. The only thing keeping up his suddenly almost boneless body was the angel's arm around his shoulders. It must be his imagination that there were soft lips brushing against his neck when his head fell back.

Gemma's hands were moving up his back, eliciting grunts of pleasure as all the tiny knots in his spine and muscles were worked out. Marduk held him tight, and if Kaito had been in the right frame of mind, he would have wondered why the angel didn't allow him to roll onto his stomach to make it easier for Gemma, but at the moment, he wasn't thinking anything at all.

Those hands had found his lower back again and he hissed a little. "There..."

"So tense right here," Gemma whispered in his other ear. Had he sat up? "Are there any _other_ places you want me to touch?"

Kaito didn't see the warning look that Marduk sent the demon, that kept those hands where they were. "Nngh."

Marduk finally let him lay down and they curled up together. Was it his imagination, or were they closer than before now, holding him tighter? He made a sound of pleasure, not having any idea that everything he was doing was only making it more difficult for his guardians.


	3. Chapter 3

First thing the next morning, Kaito was back to pick up his gun. The young man looked strangely flushed, but he smiled brightly when the door opened, Marduk and Gemma firmly ensconced in his soul. "You're back! Here, I've got it all fixed up!" His eyes widened. It practically shown in the candle-light and he fingered it reverently. "Oh, and here are the bullets you wanted."

A wooden box was set on the counter. Kaito slid the gun in its holster on his thigh and reached into his bag. "How much?"

"Oh, I couldn't! You're a friend of Zairek--"

"If you start on that, you'll never make any money!"

Kaito jumped in shock. How did that demon just show up like that?! "H-He's right," he stuttered as his heart calmed down. "While I'd rather keep the majority of my gold, you deserve money for the work you did."

"W-Well...the bullets were easy, but...five gold?" Zairek and Kaito shared a silent glance. "Um...seven?"

He dug around in his money pouch. "Here's ten gold."

"That's too--"

"If you say too much, I'll fuck you so hard tonight you can't walk," Zairek threatened, ignoring both Kaito and the boy's blushing faces. "This shit is completely new and you can charge whatever you want. Ten's minimum. Say it's a discount on account of Gemma, but if some rich guy shows up, you'd better say at least fifty!"

"Zairek--"

"You sold your soul to me to work with this shit and get rich. That's a hefty price for you, so pass it on to the customers!"

They looked as if they were going to get into a heated argument, so Kaito grabbed his bullets and let himself out in the cool daylight. Fall was his favorite time of year, because it was neither too hot, nor too cold. Then again, he also lived in a tropical area. He hadn't yet ventured into the countries with more extreme temperatures.

"Looks like I need work," he muttered, noting how little he had left. His green eyes spotted a nearby parchment left by the city guard. "Looks like I found some."

It took him a bit to find where the barracks were, due to the long and winding streets. He was a bit out of breath by the time he got there, because the lay of the land was uneven and because of that, so where some of the roads. Granted, they weren't steep inclines, but he went up enough of them that it was tiring his legs out.

The door threw itself open and he stepped aside just in time as someone was thrown out. He blinked, noting the shabby appearance and bloodshot eyes. After a minute, the pile of rags tottered to his feet.

"And don't let me catch you doing that again, you damn drunk!"

The person who spoke was a heavy-set man that had somehow staved off a beer gut by the barest of margins. He was not what anyone would call handsome, those large lips a tad off-putting and his eyes a watery brown color, but the intelligence he displayed made up for that. He was sharp and aware of his surroundings, and given the broadsword at his back, likely a powerhouse in a fight. "Who are you?"

Kaito held up the flyer. "You asked for mercenaries, so I'm here."

Those eyes swept over him in sheer disbelief. "You?"

He looked himself up and down. Did he really look that unimpressive? "Yes."

There was a sigh after a minute. "Well, beggars can't be choosers as they say. There's a nest of bandits nearby that have been plaguing the trade route and it's fallen to me to get rid of them. Problem is, I'm understaffed as it is. Do the people I work for not realize how big this damn city is?" He rubbed his eyes with callused fingers. "I don't care what happens to their equipment, you can keep whatever you want. Just bring me the amulet the leader wears as proof the whole group's dead and you'll get paid."

"You sure you want them dead?"

"Does it fucking look like I've got a use for them? I don't have a place to hold them! What, does killing make you squeamish, girl?"

Kaito masterfully suppressed a frown. "No. I just wanted to make sure."

The man rubbed the back of his neck once. "They're east of town, so I heard. Hold on while I find someone to go with you. There must be _one_ guard I've got that isn't busy."

"No need."

"Stop being so fucking overconfident. You'll get yourself killed."

Proving he'd been around Gemma way too long, Kaito smirked. "I'm fine, trust me. I can do this alone."

"Mercenaries!" the man spat, throwing up his arms in defeat. "Go and get yourself killed, see if I care!" The door was closed in his face, the slam echoing through the street.

"At least it's exercise," Kaito commented to himself. He had that habit, mostly because he was so used to Gemma and Marduk being there. They couldn't hear him in his soul, but he still found himself talking regardless.

It didn't take much to find the bandit's hideout. There was very little concealing it. All he had to do was follow the line of broken branches and shrubbery. Most of them were clearly city-bred in that regard. Gemma had taught him how to move silently in almost any environment and it had kept him safe more than once. Kaito shivered as he remembered having to sneak his way out of the catacombs of a particularly crazed set of cultists that had been intent on him impregnating their high priestess before killing him.

Their voices were loud and clear long before he saw them. "Damn, that last merchant had a haul! Lookit all!"

"Oi, hands off the gun! Boss'll have yer head!"

"Yeah, but I ain't seen this type before!"

Curiously, Kaito crept forward and peered around a tree. His green eyes widened and he wanted what he saw immediately. This was a gun unlike anything he'd ever seen. The barrel was three times as long as what he had strapped to his leg. He'd have to hold it against his back to carry it.

They must have ripped off a weapons merchant, given the crates of varying armaments around. Swords, daggers, bows, crossbows, pellets, spears... They had an arsenal and now he could see why the captain had offered him help. What the man hadn't known was that Kaito already _had_ help.

"Successful bandits," he commented, walking straight into their campfire confidently.

His abrupt appearance caused several shouts of alarm and someone exited from the only tent currently set up. Looking at his better-than-average armor and the way the bandits deferred to him, this must be the leader of the group. "Who the fuck are you?!"

"My name is Kaito," he replied.

"Your ballsy, is what you are, to walk right in here like that."

"Thanks."

"It wasn't a compliment."

Kaito just smirked. "Well, let's get this over with, shall we?"

"Think yer right. Kill him!"

With almost too fast to see reflexes, he drawn the gun and shot two. His sword took out a third by the time they'd surrounded him. His unfettered calm was starting to ruffle the feathers of the leader, who demanded his surrender. Clearly he wanted the gun.

Like hell.

"I should be calling on you to surrender, but the Glassdell city guard wants you dead."

"You think you can kill all of us alone?!"

"...Who says I'm alone?" he asked. There was nothing so fancy about Gemma and Marduk's appearance. Just with the sound of rushing feathers, they were there. He had directly pulled them from his soul, not waiting for them to appear. Later he'd allow himself time to wonder what they'd been doing all morning long.

"The hell?!"

"Well, well. Some _fun_ to be had!" Gemma said, gleefully, and pulled two criss-crossing swords from his back. His black leather clothing creaked with his movements as he surged forward into a mess of bandits.

"He's so impetuous," Marduk sighed before unsheathing his long sword and following suit. The white and black blurs were annihilating large swaths of men with precise swings that made Kaito jealous.

"Die!"

Kaito brought his blade up to meet the bandit leader's. Unlike those that worked for him, this man had more skill and was a lot quicker on his feet. Yet Kaito countered or dodged every strike, making it clear that he was doing it on purpose as he did so. The man grew angrier and angrier, charging at him like a bull. It took just a half a sidestep, a half spin, and he'd lopped off the bandit leader's head as ran past.

"Still sexy as hell to watch you fight."

He looked up at Gemma's comment from where he'd been grabbing the amulet from the corpse. He blushed a little and waved away the teasing comment. "Oh shut up. How long were you watching?"

"Since the beginning," Marduk told him, wiping his sword on the shirt of one of his dead opponents. "It didn't take more than a few seconds to take care of the rest."

"Figures."

Gemma draped himself over Kaito's shoulders. "I think you take after me and it's so cute!"

"What?"

"You were _toying_ with him. You could have killed him at any moment, you're way too good for him."

Kaito squirmed a little, blush getting darker when he felt Gemma's breath against his ear. "I just had really good teachers."

"Thank you," Marduk murmured, giving him an indulgent smile when he lifted Kaito's head up to have their eyes meet.

Left with the option of either imploding due to blushing, or doing something horrendously embarrassing and horrifying by admitting his feelings, Kaito hurried out of the grip of both of his friends. "Anyway, you two need to see this!" He hunted through the bodies until he found the long gun. "Look! The only range I've ever seen that matches this is a longbow!"

Marduk took the gun from his hands and looked it over. "It might be worth it to have that young man look at it."

"That's what I was thinking." He looked around. "Hey, there's even a strap for it!" Kaito hooked a long, leather strap to near the tip of the barrel and the other to hilt before setting it across his back. "Now, I've just got to give this amulet to the captain."

Gemma and Marduk couldn't keep their hands to themselves, as usual, and they drew quite a few stares when they reached Glassdell again when people saw him sandwiched between an angel and a demon. While he'd had trouble finding the barracks the first time, Kaito had always had a good sense of direction at returning to some place he'd already known. He banged on the door with a fist. Inside there was the sound of shuffling, then a bang as something dropped.

The captain was muttering curses under his breath as he yanked the door open. "What?!"

"The bandits are dead." He held out the amulet.

The man didn't take it right away, too focused on staring at the angel and demon. "What the..."

"I told you I didn't need help, didn't I?"

"Where the hell..."

"Marduk and Gemma have gotten themselves attached to my soul somehow," he explained. "So I just called them out and asked them for help."

Yet the man stepped back from him after he finished speaking. "What...What are you?"

What was he? Kaito blinked in confusion. "A mercenary?"

"Don't give me that glib remark! You're not human!"

"Yes I am," he protested, even more confused. While he knew that his situation wasn't normal, this didn't happen to just everyone, he didn't understand the captain's reaction. Just because of this, why did he think he wasn't human?

"He's as human as the next guy," Gemma said, his voice barely more than a growl. Their arms tightened around him protectively. "Now, he did your job, pay him."

"Fine." The bag of gold coins was all but thrown at him and Marduk had to catch it when he fumbled in surprise. "Take it and get out of here! Don't let me catch you in my city again!" As the door closed, Kaito heard him mutter under his breath, "Monster!"

"What...was that about?" Kaito asked, stunned and unsure _what_ to feel. Sure there had been some initial shock and a bit of resistance back home when everyone had seen them, but things had settled down. Granted, some had looked terrified at him and avoided him, making him wonder if Gemma or Marduk had said something, but...

"Forget him, he's just as phobic as the rest of the humans about somebody different," Gemma told him, steering him down the street.

"Agreed."

"Yeah, but he said not to come back--" Kaito protested.

"Gemma is right, don't let it bother you."

Kaito didn't say anything for a minute. "Is he right?"

"Right about what?"

"Am I not human?"

Marduk was so stunned that he didn't reply immediately. "Why would you--"

"Well, think about it. I'm _not_ normal. This just doesn't happen to regular people. Am I not human? Was I actually adopted?"

"Whoa, whoa! Slow the fuck down!" Gemma pulled them into an alley. "The hell are you on about?! Like I said, you're as human as the next guy!"

"Kaito," Marduk added, "we didn't tell you, but we _did_ figure out how to project ourselves before you were technically born. No one could see us and we couldn't even touch anything, but we were out there. In fact, we anchored to your mother. We couldn't even leave the room without her. So I swear to you, you were born as natural as anything from your mother."

"If anyone would know if you're not human, then it's us!" Gemma ended.

"Yeah, but then how did you two get attached to me? Even before I was born?" They exchanged glances, something that Kaito noticed. "Tell me, you two. For twenty years I never asked seriously until now. Now...I really want to know."

"Just...it was a spell that went wrong in your previous life," Marduk reluctantly explained. "We happened to grab onto you at the wrong moment and it warped."

"What kind of spell?"

"We don't really know for sure what you were intending on accomplishing with it," Gemma answered, but Kaito had a feeling that they knew for sure what the spell had been about. When he was about to call the demon on it, Gemma continued, "Look, it's about evening. Let's take that gun and have it looked at by Zairek's lover boy."

"Gemma!" Kaito protested, digging in his heels when the demon attempted to drag him.

"Kaito, please," Marduk murmured, sliding his hands down from his shoulders, to his wrists and then back up. "We're not omniscient. In your previous life, you started the spell when we weren't around and we only came back near the end. Everything was botched when we interrupted and you ended up dead and we were pulled into your soul. That's what happened."

Kaito shivered at those hands and a part of his brain that he was trying to ignore given the serious situation wished very strongly that those hands would wander somewhere other than his arms. "But..."

"Don't you want to know more about that gun?"

Damn Marduk's seductive voice! "Yes..."

"Then let's get going," Gemma told him, pulling the two of them back into the street. Once again he was trapped between them, but this time, it felt as if their arms were a tad desperate. Had his questions really upset them that much? Should he not ask anymore?

But shouldn't he know what had happened, if more people started calling him a monster? He had to be able to defend himself against that too. It wasn't as if Marduk and Gemma were going anywhere, but he didn't want to rely on them all the time, even if they said they didn't mind. He wanted to be self-sufficient, so he could be their equal. Maybe if he was their equal in everything, they would start to look at him differently, like a potential lover.

What had turned out to be a good day had left him very depressed.


	4. Chapter 4

The sun had just lowered behind the horizon when they reached the gun shop. Gemma made to enter first, but Kaito elbowed him out of the way before he could do so. He caught sight of the young boy yanking on a shirt quickly, Zairek looking daggers toward them. Given the fact that he was barely wearing his clothes, Kaito blushed as he figured what they'd been about to do.

"You're back already?" Zairek grumbled.

"Well, we've got something we wanted to show you." Kaito turned to the boy, who's expression was interested. "Um...what's your name anyway?"

"It's Aki."

"Well, Aki..." He pulled the long gun from his back and held it out. "What about this?"

Aki almost gasped in excitement. "A rifle!"

"Rifle?"

"I heard it's one of the newest guns, and the most expensive. Only one or two stores have it in the entire country, from what I've heard." Aki slowly took it. "It looks as if it hasn't been used at all yet. Where'd you get it?"

"From some bandits near town. The Glassdell city guard was asking for mercenaries to deal with them."

The excitement on Aki's face disappeared. "Was an older man leading them? Did he have grayish red hair with braids in it, and an amulet with a snake on it?"

"Yes."

"You're sure it was him?"

"Yeah, it was him. We watched as Kaito cut his head off," Gemma said, sounding proud of 'his' mortal. He even ruffled Kaito's hair.

"Oh. Good."

Something about the expression didn't sit well with Kaito. "Is something wrong?"

Finally Aki looked up from the gun. "That was my father."

" _What_?!"

"It's no big deal," the boy said hurriedly. "Really. In fact, _I'm_ the one that had the guard put up the notice when he said he couldn't spare the men to go deal with them."

"Why the hell would you do that?" Zairek demanded.

Aki sat on his counter, idly fingering the rifle. "He killed Mother. Apparently Mother loved Father's brother a lot and when he offered to run away with us to get away from Father's beatings, Father killed them both. Afraid that the guards would get him, he ran away years ago and left me to live on the streets. When I heard that he'd come back two months ago, I went to the guard to tell them. I told them that he had murdered Mother and Uncle, and that he was the one attacking the caravans and merchants, but I was told they didn't have the men do anything about it. I went back every day for two weeks until finally the Captain put up the flyer asking for mercenaries instead. I was actually going to start saving money as thank you to the mercenaries for killing him and avenging them, but I don't have anything."

"I-It's really no big deal," Kaito muttered, feeling awkward as hell. "I mean, I did it for the money the Captain promised, so..."

"Even if you didn't know, I still owe you, so..."

"You really don't..."

Zairek leaned down and whispered something in Aki's ear, who nodded after a minute and smiled. "Can you stay another night in the city?"

"Why?"

"Because I'll have something to thank you with in the morning if you stay."

Kaito looked hesitant. He still remembered the Captain's words loud and clear. He wasn't wanted in the city and he was afraid that maybe they were being watched by the guard. Would he get attacked, thrown in jail or thrown out if they stayed? Not to mention he'd only paid for the room for one day, assuming he'd be on the road by the afternoon.

"Yeah, we'll be here," Gemma said, completely ignoring the look on Kaito's face that clearly said he'd been about to decline.

"Gemma! Remember what--"

"That asshole captain said? Oh I remember and I'll be damned if he's going to chase out the guy he hired to do a job for him! He's an intolerant prick!"

"Talking about the Captain of the guard?" When Gemma nodded, Zairek grimaced. "Yeah, he's _always_ giving me a hard time. He's great at his job, I'll give him that. It's not easy to keep this city from descending into lawlessness, but damn do I fucking get tired of him giving him suspicious looks and being his 'go-to' demon whenever anything bad happens."

"Please stay," Aki urged to Kaito. "I swear, tomorrow morning, you'll be glad that you did."

"Fine..." Kaito sighed. "Though if you know of a cheaper inn that we could stay in, I'd appreciate it."

"Forget the inn, you can stay with us."

At Zairek's statement, Kaito looked around. Where _did_ they live? This storefront was a converted storage shed and it was very cramped with five people in there. There were no beds or anything, so they must stay elsewhere. Seeing his eyes moving around, Zairek grinned wolfishly. "Don't know much about demons, do you? Watch this."

Zairek turned to the wall he was leaning against and motioned with his finger through the air one vertical line, then a horizontal one across the top, then another vertical line opposite, almost like a doorway. The wall in that section simply faded away into blackness. "Aki lives with me."

As the two disappeared confidently into the blackness, Kaito turned to Gemma in concern. "Is that...a doorway to hell?"

"Yes...and no," his demon replied. "Zairek was always really good at manipulating space. I'm _no_ good at it, before you ask. In fact, not many creatures are, be they demons, angels, humans, or monsters. It's really damn hard and you're either born with the talent or you're not. The best way to describe what Zairek can do is warp the space where he wants so that it becomes something like an invisible, unending 'pocket' that he can do whatever he wants in. The only downside is that he can only have one pocket created at any one time and moving it without losing everything inside is hell. You can't get in or out without him either."

"That's...amazing."

"Yeah, I guess. Whatever house he's made, though, he'd had to have had made normally, because warping space does not equal building with a snap of your fingers. Now come on, I'll hold your hand," Gemma replied with a smirk.

"I'm not scared!" Kaito told him, stalking ahead of him before pausing just before he stepped through. "Marduk, are you going to be all right?"

The angel looked a tad bit apprehensive. "Is this..."

"It's not hell, it's just manipulated space. It might _look_ like hell, but it isn't."

"Then I'll be fine, I'm sure."

The darkness didn't last but a moment and when he blinked at the low light, he looked around. It was dark out in here too, a beautiful moon hanging in the sky. There was a dark, and somehow very creepy looking forest nearby and somewhere in the distance he could hear what he thought might be a waterfall. The grass beneath his feet was more gray than green, but at least it was there and not black stone and lava.

"I thought you said that he had to build whatever he had inside," Marduk accused.

"Yeah, see that four story house? He had to build that himself. The rest of the scenery he can make himself with his magic. This whole place is tied to his ability. Just view the scenery like a painting. It's not actually _real_. For example, say you saw fruit growing on a tree. If you can eat it at all, it won't do you much good. It's fake, so it won't stop you getting hungry or give you actual sustenance. If they've got food here, they brought it from the real world."

"How long are you three going to stand there?"

Zairek had stayed behind to wait for them, apparently, as Kaito couldn't see Aki. "This place is amazing," he told him as they headed toward the massive mansion nearby.

"I know, I designed it after all." Zairek sighed. "Personally, I thought my original design was better."

"What was the original?"

"It looked like home, down in hell. Black stone that makes excellent marble, by the way, lava in the distance, trees that thrive on the dark...but Aki didn't like it. First time I showed it to him, he almost screamed and asked if I'd brought him to hell. So I ended up changing it if only so that I was allowed to sleep with him again."

He couldn't help but laugh at that, at the thought that the demon liked a mortal human so much, and missed the knowing and commiserating looks that Gemma, Zairek, and Marduk exchanged.

The inside of the place was more what he expected. There was a lot of black marble, white striations running through it, heavy wine-colored rugs, and wall hangings depicting what he assumed were lots of demons. There were subtle touches of Aki, though: the color of the bannisters a dark blue instead of black, amethyst upholstered furniture and matching curtains.

"Where's Aki?"

"Probably in his workroom already. He'll probably be up all night, so you should go to bed."

"But if he's going to be up all night..."

Zairek's red eyes almost-glared at him. "Go to bed, you idiot. It's his own damn choice if he wants to work all night long."

"Zai's got a point," Gemma told him, heading upstairs. "The kid wants to work that much on it, let him. Now come on, I want to find a good room."

"Pick whichever you want." Zairek waved at them as he walked away before shoving his hands in his pockets and disappearing into a corridor to the left.

Kaito didn't honestly care, so he let Marduk and Gemma argue over which room to choose from. They were so busy with that, that they didn't notice when he wandered into a nearby bathroom. He couldn't but gasp in awe. This must be the way only royalty lived. Not only did it have a bathing heater, it also had running water and the new lever system for the toilet.

"Amazing..." he gasped, wandering over to the huge tub. It almost felt as if he was being pampered just by being allowed to use the room once! he quickly shed his dusty, but embroidered white coat, long hunter green vest, and black pants. It took him a minute to figure out how the levers worked, but once he got hot water running, he grinned triumphantly.

Curiously, he explored the rest of the tiled room. There was a mirror on the wall, he noted as released his braided hair to fall down to the middle of his back, and a lot of bottles on a nearby sink. Looking at them closely, he picked two that would clean his hair and went back to the bath. It was almost full already!

He turned off the knobs and opened the curtain to the window in the room so the moonlight could flood in. Kaito took his time settling into the almost-too-hot water. It seemed to penetrate his muscles and soothe them and he found that he could even stretch out in the tub and have room to spare. _No, I take it back. **Royalty** would be envious! Guess it pays to be a demon sometimes._

"Kaito? Hey, where are you?"

"In here!" he called at Marduk. The door opened after a minute, letting in his two friends. "So which one did you pick?"

"Neither," Gemma said, sounding disgusted as he moved to sit on the edge of the tub and pretended to lecherously look down his front. "Marduk wouldn't budge. I kept telling him the bed was better in the one I picked, but _no_."

Marduk glared. "All the furniture in the room was carved in the shape of demon heads. I am _not_ sleeping in a place that it looks as if my head is resting inside the mouth of a demon!"

"It was a bit much, but who cares about decorations!"

"Which one _did_ you pick then?" Kaito asked, hoping to derail what he assumed was going to be a repeat of the argument.

"It looks bland, which suits Marduk, and it's got a great bed!"

"Geez, you two are spoiled!" he said, laughing. "Does it matter what the bed is like?"

"How innocent," Gemma murmured, leaning over him. "Don't you know all the fun things you can do in a comfortable bed?"

Was Gemma actually...really...flirting with him? Was this something other than teasing? Combined with that look before, which he had written off as just another time he was being poked fun at, maybe...just maybe...Gemma might actually want him?

Just as he was about to respond, Marduk shoved the demon's head in the water and watched as the man sputtered when he came back up. "The hell was that for?!"

"You need to ask?"

"You're just jealous," Gemma muttered as he stood.

Kaito was sure that he wasn't meant to hear that comment, but he did, loud and clear. His heart thudded to his feet. That couldn't have made it any clearer. Marduk and Gemma were together. So...in his soul...they were having sex...weren't they? He felt unreasonably jealous and hurt even though he'd known from the start that they didn't feel that way about him.

"What's the matter, Kaito?" Marduk asked worriedly when he stepped out of the bath to towel himself off.

"Nothing."

"You don't look like it's nothing."

"I said it's nothing!" he spat. His voice bounced off the walls, sounding louder and louder every moment until it was as if he had shouted it.

It was the first time he'd ever yelled at them, or even thought about doing so. Sure he'd gotten annoyed before, but never angry. Not like this. He yanked on his clothes and grabbed his boots in his hands. "Sleep in your own rooms tonight or go back in my soul, but I'm sleeping alone tonight."

"Wait, what?!" Gemma demanded. He could hear two pairs of footsteps behind him, following him as he stalked into the first bedroom that he'd found. It was colored in greens and whites and he had a flashback that girl in his dream. He _couldn't_ stay in a place like this. He left, pushing the two out of the way that had just caught up and went to the room next to it. Reds and golds, that was fine. There were dragons winning over humans in every wall hanging, and the comforter was embroidered beautifully to match.

"Have we done something to anger you?" Marduk asked, looking a tad stunned.

"No. I just want to sleep alone."

"Now wait just a second--" Gemma growled, sounding angry, and reached out for him.

Kaito smacked his hand away harshly and the silence was shocked. Never, not once, had he ever indicated they couldn't touch him before. He saw, as if in slow motion, the looks of uncertainty in their eyes flash by. It was like in his dream, as if they didn't know what to do now, and their movements seemed cautious.

He felt guilty, yet he couldn't figure out _why_. He knew that showing their affection by hugging him was just their way, but he couldn't bear it, not right then. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "I just can't, not right now."

"Why not?!"

Gemma wasn't going to let it go, even though he seemed just a little shaken at the refusal, as if Kaito had reminded him of something that was upsetting.

Somehow the refusal to acknowledge what was so clearly obvious pissed Kaito off more than anything else. "Just stop! I don't want you touching me again, or sleeping with me!"

"...Why?" Marduk's whispered voice cracked, as if Kaito had stabbed him and he was trying to hold in the pain. There it was again, that uncertainty in his eyes, as if he knew he had to weigh his words so carefully so as to not cause an explosion of some kind.

"Because it isn't _fair_! It isn't fair to me!"

The cautious atmosphere vanished into stunned silence, as if that wasn't what they had expected to hear. "...What?"

He glared at Gemma, as if daring him to say one more time that he didn't know what was going on. "You think I'm an idiot or something?! I know you two are having sex with each other!"

They shared a glance, one that looked ever so slightly guilty. "That...we can't deny. We don't think you're an idiot," Marduk tried to explain. "It's just not something that we talk about. We didn't know how you'd react, knowing two men were..."

"Hey, I don't care! If you're happy, then fine, but if you two are then don't touch me so casually!"

There was that look again, as if he'd just slapped them. "Do we disgust you?"

Disgust? How could Marduk ask him something like that?! "Are _you two_ the idiots or something?! Haven't you looked at yourselves?! You're the two most attractive men I've ever seen and that makes it worse!"

Gemma was the first to reply and he rubbed his forehead a little, as if he had a headache. "Okay, you've rode me around in circles and I'm sick of it. Kaito, explain from start to finish because I'm tired of this shit. What exactly is the problem? Why are you so upset?"

Kaito sighed and gave up, letting his boots drop to the floor as he ran his hands through his loose hair. "It's not fair for you to touch me when you have each other. I know that despite your arguing you do care about each other and I guess you must really love each other, but it's really unfair to me if you touch me when you really want to do that to the other."

Gemma's jaw dropped and Marduk looked as if someone had punched him in the gut. "You believe...that when I touch you or hug you that...I want to do that to Gemma instead and am using you as replacement?!"

Marduk had never sounded this angry with him before and Kaito winced. "Well...yes. I mean, you practically raised me. You even taught me how to masturbate and told me what sex was like. How could you possible find me attractive? It makes sense. You told me you'd only show me how to do it once when I had my first erection and I can see why now. You didn't want to touch me--"

"Stop! Just fucking stop!" Gemma interrupted. "You... Just _what_ did you think I've been doing since you turned sixteen?! Everything I've said, everything I've done. What the hell do you think that was?"

"...Teasing?"

"Teasing?! Are you a fucking moron?! Do you have any idea how many hints I've been throwing out?! I was beginning to think you just weren't interested! Now you tell me that you thought I was only doing it for a laugh?!"

"Do you seriously believe that we would ever make light of you like that?" Marduk asked, his voice stern. "Kaito, Gemma and I have sex, yes. It's a way to pass the time in your soul and...I will admit...after so many years of being stuck with him, I've come to...care about him to some extent. I don't love him; I love _you_."

"What he said! We respect each other and care enough that it's hard to imagine the idiot not being around, but the only one that we love is you! The fact that you have to make me say it at all tells me that you're really, really..."

"B-But...you never...did anything."

Marduk sighed. "Of course not! I've been barely holding Gemma in check, much less myself! We love you, ever since the beginning, but we weren't going to touch you in any fashion until we were sure you were old enough to understand and might want to. Even at sixteen, I thought you were too young, so I wasn't surprised when you appeared to show no interest. By the time you were eighteen, I figured you were adult enough to know what you were doing and understood what we were trying to tell you without words. When you never responded in kind, I thought you were deliberately ignoring it, trying to keep things from getting awkward. Until you came to us, I wasn't allowing either of us to touch you in any fashion. We'd wanted you for so long, but were determined to wait until you came to love us in return. I never thought that you were simply too...dense to not recognize everything we've been 'saying' for the past two years."

Kaito looked between them, bewildered. "Stop c-calling me an idiot!"

"That's exactly what you are!"

"...No," Marduk sighed after a minute and reached out hesitantly to touch the side of Kaito's face. "Not an idiot... Innocent. We've protected him _too_ well I think."

"Too innocent... Then it's time to corrupt him!" Gemma said and with that, he pulled Kaito into his arms and kissed him.

There was a roaring in his ears as that pointed, black tongue invaded his mouth. It was pure, raw passion and when the demon's clawed hand gripped his ass tightly without warning, he let out a sound of shock against those lips. Gemma pulled away after a minute, but Kaito barely had time to take a breath before a different mouth was on his. Marduk was equally as passionate, but not nearly as rough. It was somehow softer, gentler.

"I thought...you said...you were waiting for me...to make the first move," he panted when he had his mouth again.

"You've broken our wills to resist," the angel murmured. "As Gemma said, you're too sexy. Too innocently sexy."

"M'not innocent! I know...some stuff..."

Gemma smirked at him and deliberately ran his finger down the front of Kaito's chest. "You're still a virgin in all senses. Who do you think we are? We've been with you since you were born."

Kaito blushed, but couldn't figure out how to refute that. "You two...!" He paused. "Gemma, Marduk." When they looked at him, he murmured, "I love you both. I have for two years, but I just--"

"Shut up," Gemma interrupted, voice dark with desire. "You say any more and I'll go crazy. More than I already am. Do you know what I thought about when I was having sex with Marduk? You on your hands and knees between us." Before Kaito had time to figure that out, the demon leaned in and whispered in his ear, "One of us in your mouth and the other between your legs. Do you like that?"

"Gemma!"

"I think he likes that, if you look down."

Marduk growled at him, but Kaito's quiet voice, somehow lacking any embarrassment whatsoever, prevented him from saying anything. "I like that idea."

Gemma growled dangerously and dropped to his knees in an instant. Kaito gasped as his pants were roughly yanked down to his knees and that black tongue began to lick him. "Oh my god!"

"Don't pray to him, pray to me," the demon murmured, his growl sounding similar to a purr.

Kaito, before he could assimilate what was going on, felt Marduk kneel as well. That tongue, however, went someplace he had not expected. "Oh hell!" Kaito spat when that thick, wet muscle began to lick at that ring of muscles Gemma teased him about.

"Not even close," Marduk replied, using his fingers to pull him wider and tongue diving inside.

The only thing holding Kaito up were his lover's hands on his waist. One of his hands grabbed onto Gemma's shoulder, the other Marduk's, but there was no strength in his arms. When the demon finally buried him to the back of his throat, he let out a shout of desperation. Nothing had ever, ever, felt this good in his entire life! One finger slid inside along that tongue and touched something. Stars exploded behind his closed eyes and he couldn't tell if he wanted to thrust forward into that wet heat, or back against that pressure.

"Drive him wild, Marduk," Gemma taunted. "I think he still knows who he is. By the time we're done, he shouldn't even know that much."

"And how are you helping if your mouth isn't busy?" Marduk countered, burying his tongue inside and Kaito shouted even louder.

"C-Can't..."

"Can't what?" Gemma murmured, licking at Kaito's sack.

"Hold on..."

"Already?"

"G-Gemma...! Feels...too good!"

"Then let me give you something that feels better." Gemma shifted on his knees and then Kaito was deep in his mouth again, pressing against the back of his throat. When two of Marduk's fingers pressed that spot inside of him again, he couldn't hold it back any longer. He came, and hard, but the demon didn't pull back. Instead, he swallowed every spurt. The pleasure, there and then gone, of every contraction only made him shout louder until he was milked dry.

Marduk caught him as he collapsed. "Kaito?" the angel murmured in concern.

"M'fine... just...best orgasm...in my life..."

He was having a hard time keeping his eyes open, even as if he felt a straining, desperate hardness pressing against his ass. Then he felt himself lifted and Gemma and Marduk were fixing his pants. "What about--"

"It's fine, you're exhausted."

"You did take on a whole mess of bandits, in case you forgot," Gemma added.

"But...you two, I should..."

"You think we haven't figured out how to handle it when you arouse us beyond sense and reason?" Gemma's voice was dry and he rolled his eyes. "You're so exhausted that it won't be fun if you're asleep through it!"

"Lemme undress..."

"Uh...no. I don't need any more temptation. I'm a demon, I'm perfectly capable of going too far, out of my mind with lust, and raping you when you're asleep and I don't want that." Gemma's eyes were serious. "I do have instincts and I have held out a lot longer than you imagine, okay? My will isn't completely unbreakable." Kaito melted into the kiss that Gemma gave him. "No point in having sex if you're not going to enjoy it."

"Marduk?"

"I've been the one keeping him in check...barely... You need not worry. You won't be hurt."

"Not...what I meant..."

That smile was soft, full of love. "I know what you meant, so just go to sleep. Besides, Gemma helps keep _me_ and my needs in check too."

He felt himself carried to the bed and he swore that he heard, as his eyes closed, Gemma whisper 'thanks' to Marduk.


	5. Chapter 5

"He just doesn't get how sexy he actually is," Gemma groused as they sat on the floor outside the bedroom, their clothes scattered around them. Their sex had been quick and rough, desperate in a way. Gemma wasn't even sure _how_ he'd managed to resist Kaito. The scent of sex, the hazy look in the mortal's eyes, had almost pushed him beyond all reason. He'd been waiting for seven years to get his hands on the guy, longer if one counted the history he had with Kaito's previous incarnation.

"I wanted him so bad right then," Marduk muttered as he pulled on his pants.

"I know, you called out his name in my ear about five million times."

"Like you care," was the prompt reply. "You were doing the same."

Gemma smirked. "'Course." They were no hard feelings between them. Every time they had sex, the only named they'd ever called was Kaito's. He knew that the object of their affections wouldn't really understand if they'd tried to explain, so he wasn't planning on telling him. They'd told the truth when they said that they'd gotten used to each other over the years, both physically and mentally, and as hard as it was to admit, Gemma would feel strange and a little upset if Marduk was ever gone. Yet that would never ever come close to how he felt about Kaito.

"What are you two doing out here?"

He looked up and waved at Zairek. "Where's the kid?"

"Still working. I just came up to grab something for him. I figured you'd two be busy as hell."

"What do you mean?"

Zairek glanced cautiously at Marduk and Gemma didn't blame him. Zairek was aware of how things had been in Kaito's previous life, but Marduk really wasn't that bad. Originally he'd been almost unable to stand the guy and he'd been so uptight that it was like he'd had a steel rod up his ass, but over the years, he'd mellowed out some. It was as if his usual, intense hatred had evened out.

"Are you telling me that you're _not_ having sex with that kid? It's...really obvious you want to fuck him until he passes out. Even Aki can tell, so I figured that you'd take advantage of a big bed tonight."

"That obvious?" Gemma snorted. "So apparently the only one who _couldn't_ tell was Kaito himself!" He glared at Marduk. "It's because you wouldn't let me make a move on him years ago!"

"Do you have any idea what that might have caused when he was impressionable?! We've been with him from the moment he was born, he's so used to our presence and he relies on us. He'd let us have him just because of our importance to him, regardless of whether he wanted us or not!"

"You're the reason he's 'too innocent' and never noticed! Still...there's something to be said for slowly corrupting his body and making him need us forever."

"You think I wasn't thinking ahead? I want not just his body, but his mind in that state too."

"Man, you two are twisted," Zairek commented, breaking into the conversation.

Gemma laughed. "I'm a bad influence, Zai. Marduk here would have never said something like that before."

"Sounds to me like this kid's got you two wrapped around his little finger."

"Soon he'll be wrapped around me, in more ways than one."

"Uh huh. So why aren't you in there right now?"

Marduk and Gemma exchanged glances. "Because Marduk is a fucking bad influence on _me_ , that's why. Years ago I wouldn't have cared if he was tired. He wasn't about to pass out completely, I could have kept him awake, but I love the guy too much to do so. I could claim that I just want him awake enough to remember everything, but the basic gist of it is that I care too fucking much."

The other demon leaned against the bannister. "Well, at least you have yesterday, right?"

"Yesterday?" Marduk repeated, mystified.

"Yeah. You think you can fool me that you didn't do it yesterday? Gemma's sex drive was fucking legendary in hell!"

"Actually..." Zairek turned stunned eyes to Gemma. "We haven't actually have sex with him yet. The first time I touched him sexually was when we taught him to masturbate when he hit puberty and after that, we kind of forbid ourselves from doing that ever again 'cause I was a hairsbreadth from just bending him over and having him. The second time was just now because he's such an idiot that he thought all my flirting was just me tormenting him for the fun of it!"

"...I think if you touched him, he'd fall over," Marduk said dryly at the shocked, silent demon.

" _Are you fucking serious_?!" Zairek demanded, his voice near shouting and the angel kicked him to keep him quiet so he didn't wake Kaito in the bedroom they were sitting next to.

"As painfully embarrassing and pathetic as it is, _yes_ I'm being serious. _No_ , I haven't been celibate. The best part about being attached to Kaito's soul is that when we're in there, he can't feel us and we can't get tired. I can have sex for hours with Marduk without needing much recharge. It lets us take the edge off."

"What the hell happened to you, Gemma...? Nobody was safe from you before! All you had to do was wink and you'd get under any skirt or in any pants in seconds!"

Gemma glared. "Like you're any better! What about that Aki kid?"

"I at least did it a demon way!"

"Demon way?" Marduk asked.

"He means he lied to him. What, did you say that in order to complete a contract, you had to have sex?" Zairek nodded. "Get some creativity next time!"

"Well at least I didn't 'wait for him to be ready' or some shit like that! You're a damn demon!"

Marduk grabbed him when Gemma surged up with the intent of getting into a brawl. "Enough! You two want to fight, do it away from here!"

"What, an angel has to save your ass, Gemma?! You've gotten weak!"

"I'm going to shove my sword right--"

"Zairek?" They turned to look at Aki standing on the landing. "What's going on?"

"What are you doing here? Decided you'd rather have sex with me than work?"

Aki blushed, but Gemma watched in smugness when the demon straightened in what seemed to be an instinctive way. "I needed your help with something, but when you didn't come back, I went looking for you," the boy muttered.

"Then come on, I'd like to get you in bed at some point tonight."

"Now who's weak?" Gemma hissed and Zairek glared at him as they headed down the stairs. "You gonna bitch at me about getting into a fight?"

"No," Marduk replied, grabbing the rest of his clothes and heading into the bedroom. "He's being a hypocrite about his feelings and actions. At least you're honest about it."

"That's your fault. Demons are supposed to be dishonest."

Marduk didn't reply as he sidled into bed, fully dressed. Gemma followed quickly, facing Kaito. "...Hell, I want him naked."

"That's exactly why he's not," Marduk replied, but by the way his hands were having a difficult time staying above the mortal's waist, he could tell the feeling was mutual. Well...maybe tomorrow morning they'd get lucky.

~~~  
 _Oh what the hell, Kaito thought in disgust as he found himself standing the same corridor as the night before. He'd hoped to fall into a dreamless sleep after what had happened. He'd all but been floating, he'd been so happy that not only did one but both of his best friends wanted him and loved him the way he did back. Granted, he could have been really dumb the last few years, but it was just so hard to believe that an angel and a demon would want a mortal like him._

_As he was wondering how to break this dream before it got started, he heard footsteps, much like last time. These were a lot lighter, much like... Kaito grimaced as the woman, Eri, turned a corner into the hallway he was loitering in. Her dress was silver edged in amethyst, the cut very complimentary to her figure, but he felt not the least bit tempted or interested. She was surprisingly asexual in his thoughts. In fact, he'd rather be anywhere but there at the moment._

_She walked right past him and he was content to let her go, only to find that he was dragged right along with her regardless of what he wanted. This was his dream, he should be able to control it, but it felt more like **it** was in control of **him**. "Fucking hell," he mumbled, digging in his heels, but it didn't make a difference or even slow the progress. _

_Maybe these dreams...were more than dreams. Kaito had never entertained the idea that he was prophetic, but if they weren't those kinds of visions, then what was this? Was whatever this was trying to tell him something? If so, then what? Something about Gemma and Marduk? Something about a kingdom? Something about this girl?_

_"There you are, Lady Sahir!"_

_Eri's frown could have frozen oceans when the serving woman spoke. "Are you searching for me?"_

_"Y-You have a visitor. H-He's in your sitting room."_

_The blonde woman swept past the servant without another word and Kaito frowned. She was just as bad as the King. Where were her manners? She didn't seem to be born of nobility or royalty, given that the way she walked was not particularly genteel or ladylike..._

_His eyes widened when he saw what could only be another angel standing by the window. He appeared to be a lot older than Marduk, his hair of the palest gold rather than white, and when he turned, Kaito noted that he had sky blue eyes. He was, perhaps, the most stereotypical image of an angel that he'd ever seen. There was no denying that he was beautiful, but something about him was also off-putting._

_There was a moment of silence as Eri and the angel looked at each other. It became uncomfortable as it stretched longer than it should and he wondered which one would break first._

_It was the angel and he wasn't surprised. Eri's eyes were like blocks of ice, they were so cold. "Where is Marduk?"_

_Eri shrugged. "Don't know."_

_"You should know where he is at all times. In fact, he shouldn't have left you alone for any reason."_

_"Why?"_

_"Have you somehow forgotten that demons are after you?"_

_Kaito's eyes widened. Demons were after her? Why? Was she, in fact, a prophet or a seer? That could explain why Marduk was there, but then what about Gemma? Gemma had always said that demons were upfront about their wants and they weren't adverse to using violence to get it. If they were 'after her', then why didn't they just take her?_

_"No. I have also not forgotten that angels are after me as well," the woman replied tonelessly._

_The hell now? Even angels were after her? What could this girl do? It sent a shiver down Kaito's spine, thinking about it. Whatever it was that was causing both angels and demons to try to get her must be very big, but that still didn't answer the question of why didn't they try to take her?_

_The angel shifted and glared. When Eri took a step forward, he took a step back with a look of disgust. "That, I assure you, is not something that I personally want. The last thing I want is for you polluting Heaven."_

_"Hey!" he spat, unable to help it. He didn't like Eri at all, something about her frightened him just a little, but he couldn't stand that attitude. You just didn't say that to someone._

_"What do you want then?" Eri asked, but by her voice, it was clear she asked only for the form of the thing._

_"You need to ask?"_

_After a minute, a bitter smile touched her lips. "No. In fact, it's the same thing I want."_

_A perfectly sculpted eyebrow rose. "Really. Then why don't you do something about that?"_

_"You think I haven't tried? What are you doing here anyway?"_

_"I came to speak to Marduk."_

_"Then go find him."_

_"I am not welcome to merely walk around this...palace."_

_"Then wait."_

_"And spend even more time than necessary around you? I'd rather not."_

_"Then leave."_

_Now he was just getting frustrated. What was this damn dream trying to tell him?! Both the demons and angels wanted this girl for some reason, and yet neither side was apparently willing or able to force her to go, nor did they seem to even like her. So what the hell?_

_"Before I take my leave, I've also been ordered to take the notes left behind by your creators."_

_For the first time since he'd seen her, an actual expression crossed her face. She was angry. "No."_

_"Give them to me. They are of no use to you."_

_"You're wrong. They are of great use to me. The more I know how I was created, the closer I'll be to undoing it."_

_The angel approached Eri and Kaito backed up a bit. There was a distinctly menacing aura about him and his wings seemed to spread just a little to make himself seem larger than before. "I was not asking, I was ordering your cooperation."_

_The very air seemed to shimmer just a little when Eri answered. "Are you going to attempt to take them by force?"_

_She was just a slip of a girl, didn't even come to the angel's shoulder, and yet he backed down. "I know very well that would be useless."_

_The shimmering seemed to disappear and the woman's apathy returned. "Then make your decision: wait or leave."_

_With a muttered sound of dislike, the angel threw the window open and jumped out, taking to the skies with powerful beats of his feathered wings. Eri turned away and sat down at a desk. As he watched, she pulled out a key from a small drawer only to use it to unlock a larger one. Curiously, Kaito wandered closer to appear over her shoulder._

_There was a small book that he assumed was a journal and more than a handful of loose sheets of paper. She was moving them much too quickly to really get a good read of them, but just a glance was enough. Some of them detailed some very dark, demonic rituals that made him shiver in fear and others were drawings and diagrams of what he could only assume were angelic ones by the symbols. Why would she have these? Were these the notes the angel spoke of?_

_Eri flipped through the book, proving that it was indeed a journal, and stopped near the center of it where she'd left a bookmark. Given the wear on the edges and the dog-ears on the pages, she'd apparently been through the book repeatedly. There was something akin to a mild desperation around the edges of her mouth, as if she were upset that she couldn't find what she was looking for._

_The writing was hard to read, but not illegible. "I have my suspicions that they are aware of what we're attempting," he muttered aloud, just because the silence in the room was starting to get to him. "We'll have to proceed more quickly. I think this will be the last one." He grunted in annoyance as the page was turned before he'd even gotten through one paragraph._

_"The merging is going well, better than the three before. Roegar and I have gotten into a good rhythm with this spell. Tomorrow it'll be ready for impla--" A page flip. "It went well. The body accepted the soul without any problems and now we'll just have to--"_

_This time what cut him off was the combination of a page turn and a knock on the door. In unison, Kaito and Eri looked over their shoulders. "Milady, dinner is served. His Majesty requests you come to down."_

_"Very well."_

_He watched as she went, fully expecting to be dragged along and digging in his heels against it, but there was nothing. He waited even as she turned outside the doorway and left. Why was that? Why had he been dragged along before and now wasn't? Was he now in control of his dream? Testing it, he tried to rearrange the room with his mind, but when that failed, he sighed._

_Kaito blinked when he realized she had left the journal open. His hand went right through it, so he couldn't turn any pages, but at least he could read in peace. There were several dates throughout the two pages. Most were spaced between every two and three paragraphs, but some had only one or two lines next to them._

_"So far, it is going well. She is seven months along and only now showing signs of fatigue and strain." Were they talking about what he thought they were talking about? He skipped to the next entry set a month later. "Bedridden and weak, but she has not lost it yet." This couldn't be... As he moved to the next one, his fears were confirmed. "The birth was difficult and abnormal. Too weak to even attempt birthing normally. The baby had to be extracted. The mother did not survive, but the child did. It's a girl. It's very saddening at the loss of the mortal, but it is still better than the previous times where neither the baby nor the mother lived."_

_How...How could whoever wrote this say that? They'd done this more than once?! What was their goal? What were they planning on accomplishing? And **what** were they? No mortals could do what it was suggested they had done...right? _

_The next entry was dated ten months later, the gap a tad startling. "She will be a year old soon. Too busy until now to write down my observations of her progress. As Roegar suspected, she is a tad unbalanced. Despite this, she seems highly intelligent even now. Most of the time, her temperament calm, almost desensitized, but she is prone to go into fits without warning. She does not cry. She did not even cry at birth. Her development is progressing rapidly physically. She has mastered crawling and I suspect she will attempt walking soon. I am unsure if she can speak. She seems to understand when we talk, but I don't know if she can't speak or merely chooses not to."_

_Kaito gulped as he read further, a pit of unease forming in his stomach. "She has little to no control over her magic, but they are unparalleled. She is not even a year old and has already surpassed us in sheer ability. During one of her last fits, the resulting blast of angelic power sent Roegar through two stone walls. Had I not been quick enough with healing him, he might have died. She is a beacon of power and if Heaven and Hell haven't noticed before, they have now."_

_This couldn't be! Heaven and Hell? Angelic power? Was this journal really implying that they had put angelic power, and if Hell was involved, demonic power into a person? No, not just put into a person...they had mixed the two powers into one and put it into a woman. Was their intention to create a soul like that? Did they succeed in actually making a person that was...a hybrid?_

_Perhaps the most devastating was the next and last entry on the page, dated two and a half months later when the girl must have been a year old. "Her inherent mental imbalance, likely caused by the clashing of demonic and angelic power, seems to be exacerbated by negative reactions. As a test, when we allowed interaction with other mortals nearby and an older child stated that her silver eyes were 'creepy', caused her to withdraw completely in their presence. When we returned home, she threw a fit. This was worse than ever before and her demonic powers destroyed several walls. Only when she passed out from exhaustion did she stop."_

_Kaito couldn't help feeling that unease blossom into horror at the final sentence. "By the way, we have named her Eri."_

He wasn't sure who he'd hit as he surged up in bed, panting; he only dimly noted that there was the sound of a grunt. That...that girl...she was an experiment? If...If he was right, then Roegar and the author of the journal were likely an angel and a demon, if Heaven and Hell were involved in any way. Perhaps the worst part about it was that not once did it feel that the writer cared at all for Eri. He was clinical and detached, just writing down his observations. If he really had cared for her, then why would he write her name down almost as if it were an afterthought, something he had to be reminded of? If she really were a hybrid, a mix of angelic and demonic power, and if she really were that powerful, it would make sense why both sides wanted her and yet couldn't force her.

"--to. Kaito!"

Kaito winced at the almost-shout in his ear and he looked at Gemma. "What?"

"What the hell? You're worse than you were yesterday!"

"What did you dream about?" Marduk prompted when he said nothing.

"It's nothing."

"The last time you said it's nothing, it was definitely a something and a big one!" Gemma argued, glaring at him fiercely.

Maybe...maybe it would better to explain, but something held his tongue still. Was it because Gemma and Marduk had been in the first one? He'd hoped to get some answers regarding that halfway through his second dream, but all he'd heard was Marduk's name. No, he needed time...and a good night's sleep. He'd only had about four hours of uninterrupted and peaceful rest the night before and tonight wasn't looking any better.

"Kaito?"

He ignored Marduk's pleading voice and settled back down into the bed again, yanking the sheets up to his chin. "Go to sleep," he muttered wearily and closed his eyes, but it was a long, long time before he found any rest.


	6. Chapter 6

There were dark circles under Kaito's eyes the next morning. As he had suspected, he'd only had about two hours of sleep by the time it had claimed him after that dream. Gemma and Marduk were watching him like hawks as he waited in the foyer for Aki and Zairek, but he was pointedly ignoring their stares and silent questioning. He'd all but bolted from the bed before the other two could do so much as get a peck of a kiss. While he could force them back into his soul regardless of what they wanted, Kaito only liked doing that as a last resort. So far, they hadn't made that need critical yet.

Aki was looking about as bad as him. He'd clearly stayed up all night finishing whatever he wanted, but unlike Kaito, he looked pleased. "Here!"

Kaito took the rifle and examined it. It had the same shape, but it looked significantly modified in decoration. He had even added his own invention that he called a scope on top of the long barrel. He even noted demonic symbols carved into the hilt. "What'd you do?"

"This won't need bullets!"

"What?"

"Follow me!" Aki almost gleefully pulled him outside the house. "Aim for the treeline and pull the trigger."

"But there aren't--"

"Just trust him," Zairek muttered, looking as if he hadn't slept either.

Skeptical but willing to try it, Kaito lifted it to his shoulder and closed one eye instinctively as looked through the scope on the gun. It brought things into sharp focus like a magnifying glass. He pulled the trigger, not expecting much and was shocked when a bolt of black appeared and chipped the bark of one of the trees. "What?!"

Aki was grinning almost like a mad scientist. "Zairek and I worked on it. See the symbols we carved? That absorbs your magic and funnels it into the gun, so that when you shoot, you're shooting concentrated magic. It's small, but a lot deadlier because of it. Zairek said you were radiating power like a waterfall so you shouldn't ever notice the drain on your magic unless you're shooting constantly in quick succession."

He blinked. He was? Sure he had magic, and he knew that it wasn't anything to sneeze at, but was it really that much? Or maybe only demons and other supernatural beings could sense it? He tried to just push off that sense of anxiety such knowledge brought him, but it wouldn't leave him. It sat like a vulture in the back of his mind.

"It's amazing, Aki! Thank you, to both you and Zairek!"

"It's one of a kind, so you'd better take fucking care of it," the demon told him as he opened the doorway back into the storage-turned-store. "And Gemma?"

Gemma paused and looked back over his shoulder. "What?"

"'Bout last night...we're okay, right?"

"...Yeah, no hard feelings."

"What was that about?" Kaito asked as they stepped through alone.

"Tell me what you dreamed last night, I tell you what happened between me and Zai."

He frowned. "Fine, I didn't really care anyway."

He heard Gemma mutter to Marduk under his breath, "That would have worked before..."

If it wasn't for the subject matter of his 'dream', it probably would have, Kaito reflected. He steadfastly ignored most everything Marduk and Gemma said when it related to asking questions the same way that he ignored the way the guards of the city kept a wide berth but suspicious eyes on him as they left. He should have bought more travel rations when he was there, but he'd just wanted to be away. The dreams had started when they'd entered Glassdell, so maybe they would go away when he left.

Because of his poor sleep, a surprisingly unusual occurrence, the last two days, there was a sense of lethargy gripping him. Even when he saw dangerous thunderclouds rolling in that preceded a storm, he just didn't have the energy to pick up the pace. Kaito even found himself considering taking up Marduk's offer of flying him to the nearest small town to seek shelter before it arrived.

Unfortunately, his hesitation of saying yes cost him. By the time he had decided to agree, raindrops had already started and the afternoon sun was darkened behind black clouds. Just great. What else was going to go wrong?

"Shit! Now my wings are all wet!" Gemma spat, stumbling as the wind started to pick up to fierce gusts.

"How far are we from the town?" Marduk asked, raising his voice over the storm.

"Don't know, I can't see anything beyond a few feet in front of me," Kaito replied, stumbling when he accidentally stepped on a large, round rock. He was lucky enough thanks to his reflexes to avoid a sprained ankle.

"Well we've got to find something! How well do you know the layout in this area? Is there a cave?"

"Cave?! Do you even see a fucking forest around here?" Gemma spat at Marduk.

Before they could get into an argument that he didn't have the patience for, Kaito interrupted, "There's got to be something along the road!"

"I'll find it!" Gemma all but shoved him at Marduk, who wrapped his wings around the smaller mortal to shield him from the lashing of the wind at least. Black wings extended and despite the wind, he began flying.

It was ten minutes later when the demon returned and by this point he appeared soaked and tired. "Found what I think used to be a house or something. Didn't seem to be anybody there!"

Kaito and Marduk didn't argue and just let themselves be led. The angel clearly wasn't going to risk flying and Gemma was too tired to try. It had probably taken more effort than usual with his wings soaked and being buffeted this way and that.

True to his word, the house was nearby the road and they stumbled in, almost collapsing on a pile on the floor. Given the mess inside, furniture tossed willy-nilly and most of the broken items, Kaito figured that bandits must have attacked the people that lived there. He thought he even spotted a stain that might have been dried blood in a corner.

"Not bad huh?" Gemma panted.

"We're lucky indeed. Thank God," Marduk replied.

"Stop thanking him, God didn't have anything to do with this!"

"Shut up and help me get Kaito undressed! He's shivering and if he stays in those clothes, he'll get sick!"

"I can do it myself," he argued heatedly, but Marduk wasn't giving in. His fingers were quick and fierce as he began yanking off his sword belt and two guns. Gemma had already tossed his boots somewhere before he'd even finished speaking. "Let me do it myself!"

His second command had the same effect as the first: they ignored him. Gemma didn't even seem to be taking care with his claws as he yanked down his pants and Marduk threw his jacket, vest, and shirt away. Despite his lethargy, he watched in anticipated awe as their clothing was stripped away even faster. "But you two don't have bodies, you don't get sick..."

"Everything is soaked and you need to get warm," Marduk told him as the angel and demon gathered him up in their arms once they were nude.

He couldn't help it. He blushed a deep scarlet, particularly when Gemma smirked at him, idly guiding his legs around either side of the demon's hips. "What are you thinking?" he murmured, a lilt in his voice.

"N-Nothing!" he protested as Marduk shifted him in his lap so that their combined wings went around all three of them. White hair fell over his shoulder as the angel leaned closer and nibbled on the back of his ear.

"I think you're thinking something naughty."

"Marduk!"

"Like I said, I'm a bad influence on our dear angel here," Gemma taunted, shifting closer until Kaito's chest pressed against his. He watched in anticipation those lips drew closer. This time when they kissed, it seemed less frantic than before. Kaito tried to move his arms, to wrap them around the demon, but with the wings and how he was held, all he could really do was let them play with his body any way they wanted. He also tried to ignore how erotic that thought was to him.

Marduk's hands slipped down to stroke the insides of his thighs and he whimpered against that black tongue almost buried in his throat. His ankles hooked together behind Gemma's back and pretty soon he couldn't tell who began where. Claws lightly, carefully, flicked at his nipples, causing them to harden to little nubs.

His arousal wasn't exactly slow to manifest itself and judging by the feel of Marduk and Gemma, neither were theirs, but there was no rush in their movements. He wasn't even sure how they could ignore the raging desire as if it wasn't there because _he_ certainly couldn't! Whenever someone's hand went close to his erection, he desperately pleaded with them to touch, but they didn't. Those fingers would just slip away teasingly.

So lost in the kissing and the gentle exploration two pairs of hands were doing that Kaito didn't notice the gentle rocking at first. It was a simple movement, just pressing him up and down a little. Then Gemma was gripping him, pressing their erections together, and suddenly that rocking was a helluva lot more. Marduk was pressing and rubbing between his cheeks, and he'd never felt a man so hard in his life before now. He cried out as that pleasure was still slowly steadily growing. They weren't moving as fast as he wanted!

"Harder!" he moaned.

"Don't think so," Gemma panted. "This time is our time. We get to have our way with you, and this is the way we want it."

"I want more!"

"You have no idea how insane that knowing that makes us, but we're having quite a bit of fun just like this." The demon smirked at him, squeezing him almost painfully tight for a brief second, before loosening his hand. "Sexually torturing you is a pleasure in and of itself, but don't worry, you'll be pleasuring us soon enough."

"Marduk!" Kaito pleaded, hoping beyond hope. "Marduk, please! Faster!"

The angel chuckled in his ear. "You can't break a united front, Kaito." For a brief moment, Marduk shifted and he felt that head rubbing right against his entrance, but before he could plead for more, he moved back to where he was. "You made us come to you, so you'll have to accept that this is on our terms."

No matter how he begged, and he begged _a lot_ , neither did as he asked. In fact, the only thing begging got him was a lot of lovebites all over his neck and shoulders. By the time they had reached their slow peak, Gemma was growling almost like a demonic beast and Marduk's panting in his ear was giving way to guttural moans.

"Ready to come?" Gemma murmured.

" _Yes!_ "

"Then watch me."

His emerald gaze shifted down to watch as those clawed fingers gently pulled away the foreskin. Marduk's hand came around and his eyes widened for a half a second before they pressed down on his sensitive head. Kaito let his orgasm go with a desperate scream that went unheard over the storm. Most of it landed all over his chest, but some hit his chin and fell into their wings.

Gemma merely licked it off his chin as the rocking movement shifted to a fever pitch without warning in the middle of his climax. Gemma's release covered his already sticky chest and chin and he felt something warm and went slide between his cheeks and legs when Marduk reached his peak.

"Oh god...oh hell..." was all he could think of to say.

"Better than yesterday?"

Kaito's eyes opened just in time for the sight of Gemma to lick a finger of some wetness that had gotten into his hair. He whimpered, any words fleeing, but that seemed to be all the demon wanted to hear anyway because he smirked. White and black wings were drawn away as suddenly Marduk shifted him again, this time pulling his arms away from his chest. Gemma leaned forward just as the angel had intended and began licking up the sticky juice left behind.

"What are you...?!"

"Well, we have to make you clean, don't we?" Marduk murmured.

"...Gemma is a really bad influence on you," he moaned as that black tongue licked a line from his navel to his neck.

He heard Marduk chuckle behind him.

In the end, they gave him two more orgasms, but by the time Kaito fell asleep, not feeling any desire to get up from their cuddling hold even though the storm had stopped by that point, he was still a bit frustrated. He wanted a lot more than the heavy petting and licking. He wanted something more than their fingers pistoning inside him and something more than their mouths around him. Why weren't they doing more...? Well they may be willing to take their time, but Kaito wasn't!

_"Damn it! I don't want to be here!" Here he was again. It was the third damn night in a row and he was sick of it. "Just tell me what you want so I can get out of here!" he screamed._

_When he finally calmed down, he stalked down that unwelcome hallway to Eri's sitting room. He didn't see her there. The books and notes from the last dream were put away and from the window outside, it was night out this time. What did it want to show him this time?_

_Sounds caught his attention from a closed door. He didn't bother to try to open and instead walked right through. Kaito had enough time to notice that it was a bedroom when his heart seemed to disappear entirely. Eri was there all right, spread between Marduk and Gemma as the knelt on the bed. It took another second to recognize that odd sound of pain came from himself when Marduk moaned. So...So it was like that. What...what **was** all this? Had someone cursed him to live his worst nightmare? _

_"I love you, Eri," the angel murmured, tilting her head and kissing her sweetly as Gemma shifted pace to gentle so he didn't hurt the young woman he was sharing._

_Kaito wished he could sink through the floor, but it seemed it was only that that he couldn't go through. He wanted to stumble out of the room and retch, his stomach was roiling and he was feeling sick, but it was as if he was rooted to the spot. He had to listen to every single verbal and watch every nonverbal declaration of love that the pair were capable of giving._

_Yet Eri seemed completely unmoved by it all. Her face wasn't expressionless, how could it be when she was being suffused with pleasure, but not once did she murmur anything in return. She treated this moment with almost the same indifference as she did everything else. He found himself screaming words and invectives at her in frustration, asking why she could disregard their feelings so firmly, but it didn't matter. He was just a spectator here._

_He turned away when their climax came and kept it turned away, toward the window, as they fell to sleep. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted that at least they didn't curl in around her, hold her while she slept like they did him, but that meant nothing in the long run, did it? Kaito still felt as if he were bleeding inside, drowning in blood. Seeing Marduk and Gemma like this was beyond painful and it pissed him off because this was a damn dream. He couldn't take them back from her, he couldn't tell her to forget it because they were with him, nothing. It was all a horrible, horrible dream._

_Time seemed to speed up for the rest of the night until it was just as the sun was about to rise. He heard rustling from the bed and turned involuntarily to watch. Eri crawled out, pulling on a single silk robe, and went to a wardrobe. Gemma and Marduk were still fast asleep and he watched, resentful as hell, when she began to fill a bag with things he couldn't see and couldn't be bothered to move to look at._

_Much like the last time, when she walked, he was dragged along whether he wanted to or not. He found himself talking to her back. "Just fuck you, woman! Who the hell do you think you are?! Gemma and Marduk fucking love you and you didn't say a damn thing?! Do you even give a fuck!? Who the hell are you to me?! Are you some witch that I've somehow pissed off and this is all to torment me?!"_

_There was no answer, not that he expected one. He didn't even move his feet, so it was like he was floating over the ground as he was dragged up to the rooftop. Great spires were the only thing higher than they were and Eri looked around. There was no one there and some unwilling curiosity prompted him to move closer as she began setting things up. She began to draw something on the ground with white chalk, then took charcoal and drew it again inside the white lines. Next came candles, two white and two black, one pair in the front of the symbol facing the rising sun and two in back._

_Eri lifted up the hem of her robe as she stepped into the center of the symbol, only a tiny circular area there for her to stand without smudging anything. As the sun came across the horizon, she began to chant. It felt like forever that Kaito listened to her monotone droning before something happened. Her hands lifted, palms up and along their length a horizontal shard of light appeared. First it flickered white, then black, and as she finished her chant, it turned a deep, blood red._

_Though Kaito couldn't explain how, he knew with bone deep certainty that only her own power was enough to kill her. She shifted the shard of red light and it moved, a point facing her chest. For the first time, he saw her smile just as she beckoned with her hand, as if trying to tell it to come forward._

_" **Eri!** " _

_That smile disappeared and he saw horror touch her features as he watched Gemma and Marduk fly up, wearing nothing more than pants. They tried to race the long shard of light, but while they beat it, managing to grab onto her, they had no time to pull her away. It pierced her chest with no sound. Eri didn't even cry out, only a slight splash of blood appearing. Then there was an shattering howl of power that he didn't so much hear as feel, yet he felt as if he'd go deaf anyway. Much like how he knew that this would kill her, Kaito knew that the explosion of red light that overtook the rooftop should have been simultaneous blasts of white and black. That was what she was going for, he knew that. The spell had gone wrong._

_The red in his vision faded away to blackness and then he appeared standing on the side of a road in daylight, watching as a young woman thanked a heavily armored knight for saving her. He looked up in dawning realization as something only he could see, a spec of light, flew down from the sky and touched the woman's stomach. In mounting horror, he watched as time seemed to speed past the next nine months of the woman's -- his mother's -- pregnancy. Watched as Gemma and Marduk appeared in silent figures beside her bedside, watching in anxiety as he was born, and became sentinels at his cradle._

He didn't bolt upright from his sleep this time. Instead he sat up normally, in a sense of numb shock. Part of him was in total and utter disbelief, but the majority of him was dead certain. Eri was him, who he'd been in that previous life. What happened to her...it happened to him. _He_ was that experiment. No wonder he'd been uneasy and afraid of her. Kaito was that sane part of their existence that was afraid as he looked into the maw instability of his former self. Subconsciously he'd known this, a feeling that he knew something was wrong with her and yet he couldn't stop it.

It was as if he understood everything about her now, knew what she knew, only with a detachment she couldn't feel. She had known from the moment she'd been born that she was different. That she was a hybrid. That was what that angel and demon didn't understand: it was as if that knowledge had been seared into her brain. Before she'd even had a concept of self, she'd _known_.

"Kaito?"

He jerked from his thoughts, looking down at Marduk. It was as if he'd been unconsciously suppressing the rest of the dream because he suddenly remembered what had upset him so much. They'd been in love with _Eri_. That accident, when they'd tried to save her, had tied them to his soul, but when they looked at him, they saw her. Much like how he knew Eri's thoughts, he knew that she didn't love them. She hadn't loved anyone, even herself...and they hadn't cared, had they?

When the angel reached out for him, he slapped that hand away with a lot more force than he had Gemma's the day before. Kaito was on his feet in the next instant, putting as much space between the bewildered demon and angel as he could in the small room. This wasn't something he could just accept. Sure Eri was his previous existence, she was a part of him, but he wasn't _her_. Disregarding gender entirely, he was entirely different person! He thought differently, acted differently, believed differently than she ever could!

"It was her."

"Who?" Gemma asked, nonplussed.

"Eri."

The silence after his flat statement was understanding, but they didn't know how angry that he really was. Why didn't they tell him?! He'd asked hundreds of times, even if most of those times he hadn't minded if he hadn't gotten an answer, but this was too much. To profess that they loved him when it was Eri they really loved was unconscionable!

"I know, you know," he hissed, his voice angry. "I don't know _everything_ , mind you, like how you met her, but I know a helluva enough. I know what she was, what _I_ am. I know that Heaven and Hell fought over her even if they felt she was disgusting since she was a hybrid. And worst of all, I know you loved her."

"Kaito--"

"I had to watch!" he screamed. "I had to fucking watch you two love her in bed! You would have done anything for her!"

"We'd do anything for you!" Gemma interrupted.

"Only because of who I used to be!"

Marduk stood slowly, but knew better than to approach. "Kaito, before you go on, will you let us talk first? Please...listen. I'll get down on my knees and beg, if that's what you want, but I...we need you to hear us out."

He didn't want to. Every fiber of his being was telling him punish the people that had brought him such pain. He'd believed them when they said they loved him and he'd fallen so hard for them that he hadn't been able to find a way out. He'd been ready to give them everything they'd wanted... Unable to speak around a sudden obstruction in his throat, though he refused to cry, he nodded.

When Gemma made to speak, Marduk kicked him. "I'm better at this than you, so shut up."

"But--"

"You can only talk about the demon stuff. You're so bad at explaining that if I let you do it, he'd end up killing us!"

"...Che. I hate it when you're right."

He had trouble meeting Marduk's golden eyes. "I don't know how much you know, but let me start from the beginning. A few hundred years ago, there was an angel and a demon who went missing. Everyone assumed that they had met in some 'dark alley', you might say, and killed each other in an ensuing fight. Nobody thought much of it. Then, after about five years, odd things started happening in the mortal realm. There'd be a brief surge of power that had felt both demonic and angelic, then it would disappear. A day or so later, a mortal woman would become with child without having experienced sex that would lead to it."

"I know they'd tried that before," Kaito spat.

"Then do you know how disastrous the first few times were? The first time they did it, both the baby and the mother died within four weeks of her pregnancy. The second, seven weeks. Third, she managed to make it through the first trimester before they both died. The fourth actually brought the child to term, but they died in childbirth. By this point, Heaven--"

"--and Hell."

"--had caught on. Their fifth and final attempt was successful. The mother brought the baby to term, but they had to cut the child out to save it. She died. The reason they were experimenting was because they had a simple question: could an equal amount of pure angelic magic combine with an equal amount of pure demonic magic in one soul? Heaven--"

"and Hell."

Marduk glared at the second interruption. "--had forbidden even the idea of it. Demons are, after all, angels mortal enemies. ...Or so we had been told. Fearing that the experiments would be successful, there was an assault by both sides on the renegades. They were killed, but it was too late. There was already a baby, a girl of a year and three months old. She was more powerful than anyone had ever seen and right then, both sides recognized that whoever had her on their side had the potential to completely wipe the other out.

"There was a battle right in front of the baby, she saw everything. No one was left alive in the carnage and she was covered in blood. A mortal couple found her and took her in, but she didn't remain anonymous much longer. Within three days, both demons and angels had found them. They demanded the child. Nobody knows quite what happened then. Some say that there was a flash of light and all three angels and demons were just...gone. It was as if they ceased to exist and no one could find the power signature of the baby."

Marduk's eyes were pleading at him, silently asking him to come closer so they could at least warm him up. It was cold that night, the breeze still tinged with rain and only one of the windows remained unbroken. It didn't help that they were all still naked...but Kaito ignored the look.

"There was an investigation by Heaven, and I'm assuming Hell." Gemma nodded. "We found out what they were trying to achieve and how fast her development cycle was going, magic wise. We didn't find his journal and the majority of the notes, only the ones that had survived the battle in the old tower they'd taken up residence.

"Despite searching in earnest, it wasn't until she was nineteen that her magical signature was found again. By then, it was even worse."

"She wasn't mentally stable to start with."

Marduk winced at Kaito's words. "No, she wasn't. Mind you, we found this out later, but apparently her childhood had been...harsh. The other children of the village she had been moved to avoided her altogether when they weren't tormenting her, and her father became a drunk and beat her when the family was ostracized by the rest the adults when they noted her differences. It didn't help that up until she was in her late teens, she had no control over her power. When she'd lose control, people barely survived. They were terrified of her and treated her as if she was the cause of every bad thing that ever happened to anyone. Combine that with her already precarious mind and she became..."

"She'd tried to kill herself a lot," Gemma muttered. "They lost count, but she couldn't actually die by normal means. Her body was...almost immortal to any mortal weapon or even regular spell. She'd jump off tall buildings and yet somehow survive without a scratch because of her magic. I've always wondered if that was the demonic part of her. Demons have a strong self-preservation instinct."

"Would you let me tell this at least in some semblance of chronological order?" Marduk spat. "Anyway, when she was nineteen, the prince of the kingdom she was living in spotted her. He was a mage as well, average to low, but he had enough to recognize her powerful presence. When he asked her to show him what she could do, and he saw that she, at a flick of her fingers she could level a third of a nearby forest, he begged her to come with him to the palace.

"Eri's only coping mechanism was apathy born from an intense hatred of herself and what she was. She had cut herself off from emotions and only shrugged her agreement. Life supposedly got better for her at the palace. The royal family showered her with gifts and all that money could buy so long as she did what they asked. One time of destroying an entire army encroaching on their borders and that was all that was needed. She wasn't happy at the palace either, though, because with the exception of going to dinner with the family, she was confined to her wing of rooms. When she left the palace at all, it was under heavily armed guards. They didn't want to lose her, after all."

"And the King had some insane notion that she had to be a virgin for the rest of her life," Gemma added. "He didn't like letting men go near her and kept a lot of people to a minimum so nobody could 'influence' her."

"She was kept mostly in isolation. That was how she was when we met her." Marduk looked even less thrilled to relay this part of the story. "Heaven and Hell had found her. Knowing they could not force her to their side, she was far more powerful than them, they tried to woo her. I was assigned as her guard, with the orders of persuade her to side with Heaven and the very least, don't let Hell have her."

"My orders were the same, only in reverse."

"Eri didn't care. She didn't tell us to leave or to stay. When we stayed, the King allowed more visitors, I'm assuming since she believed we'd guard her chastity."

"Didn't do a very good job of that, did you?" Kaito muttered.

Marduk pretended he didn't hear that. "At first I didn't really like her, but the longer I stayed around, I couldn't help getting attached to her. I wish I could pinpoint the moment I fell in love with her, but I can't. It was just so gradual." Gemma nodded again, but mercifully remained silent.

"She didn't love you," he told them. He wasn't sure what prompted him to say it and he'd never forgive himself later, but right then, he wanted to hurt them even a little like the way they'd hurt him without even knowing it.

Yet neither looked bothered in the least. "We know. When we professed our feelings for her, she shrugged."

"I still remember that she stated, 'If you want this body, take it.'"

"She told us that she didn't care what happened to her," Marduk continued. "We'd already been with her through two more suicide attempts and we knew very well how much she didn't care. We had found the journal, read through it all, and we'd suffered through a few of her 'fits', but it hadn't changed our feelings. At first it bothered me to 'share' her with Gemma, but eventually, things settled. It was the three of us. I can't say what it was about it, but I became...I guess friends with Gemma because of her."

Kaito was coming to the end of his rope. He didn't want to hear anymore! "Are you done yet?!"

"No. That morning Eri died, we had slept too deeply to hear her getting up. It was the surge of power that woke us and we tried to reach her in time. I didn't know what she was doing, but I didn't like it. I still don't know what her goal was beyond an obvious intent to die. Yet she'd tried to do so several times before, yet this was completely different. We must have interrupted something. There was light, red light, and then the next thing I know, all I'm seeing is light. I stumbled around until I found Gemma, but we had no idea where we were.

"For us it felt like a few minutes had passed, maybe a few hours, but in reality, it had been hundreds of years before Eri's soul was reborn into your mother. It was, much like the first birth, miraculous. Your mother was a virgin when she became pregnant, but it didn't matter because she was already clearly in love with her future husband. They believe you are, without a doubt, their child.

"This time we were determined to help make your childhood better than it was before. We loved Eri enough to do so."

"Could have knocked us over when you turned out to be a boy!" Gemma said, grinning a little.

"Like I said, you love her, not me!"

"I'm not done yet," Marduk interrupted, but it was the demon who continued the explanation.

"Look, Kaito... I know I'm supposed to, but I'm not gonna lie to you. At first, yeah, it was because you were Eri, but that changed. You can imagine our shock when it was this snot-filled but adorable little two year old was making inroads in our devotion to her. You were fucking cute as hell, Kaito. You were everything she _wasn't_ for Satan's sake! I'd never seen more smiles in my damn life and they were all for us. Hell, it scared me a little because by the time you were seven, I'd all but forgotten Eri. It had become more of 'Eri was someone I loved and what happened to her was bad, but I'm moving on'. By the time you were thirteen and hit puberty, I already loved you. _We_ already loved you. That's why we only touched you once when we taught you about that shit. If I'd done it again, you wouldn't be a virgin right now!"

"But we didn't want to introduce you to that when you were so young," Marduk finished. "So we waited. We knew that as much as we love you now, as much as we loved her then, we had to wait to see if you felt the same way." When Kaito didn't say anything at first, he continued, "Please, Kaito. We've never lied to you before, not ever, so please believe us now. I don't know how you know, I don't know what you might have dreamed, but if you've seen anything at all, surely you know we don't treat you the same as Eri. You're far more precious to us, you have to know that. We loved her, but we always knew she didn't return those feelings. It was a sad love, one we lived with and accepted, but she couldn't make us as happy as you do."

"You've made us cowards," Gemma muttered, running his hands through his hair. "We're willing to do anything to not lose this, but at the same time, we don't have the courage to do to you what we did to Eri. As much as Marduk says that we were waiting for some noble cause, part of us was just damn scared. We were too cowardly to be as bold as we were to Eri. In fact, we knew before we said anything she couldn't love us. Why not be as bold as we were then, when there's no risk of getting your heart broken? There was a ton of risk with this and we were afraid."

Kaito didn't really want to believe them. He was still angry, still upset at everything he'd just learned, but he trusted Gemma and Marduk. They had never lied to him before; they had always looked out for him. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

The two words had broken the barrier and Marduk and Gemma were at his side in an instant. He was scooped up into those arms, warming him and he didn't realize how cold he'd actually been. "I'll tell you."

"Tell us what?"

"Eri's spell. You're right, it was something to help kill herself, but it was so much more than that. It was a modified version of the spell used to create her. It would have destroyed her very soul, she'd cease to exist."

Marduk shivered a little. "Then I'm glad we disrupted it."

"Am I like her? With my magic? Zairek said I'm like a beacon, right?"

Gemma pursed his lips a little. "Anybody who's not magically dead can sense you and know you're damn powerful, but you're not almost uncontrolled and uncontained like Eri was. Whatever happened to that spell when it went to hell and gone did something else and I'm not sure what. It wasn't easy for your mother to give birth to you and it ruined her other chances for children, but you're both alive and she had you normally. Rather than a feeling of a body that barely contains a core of power that radiates for miles, you feel like a person that has a fuck ton of magic. You radiate it, yeah, but not like that. It's...balanced, I guess."

"...Just stop trying to explain things, Gemma."

"Well, _you_ do it then!"

Marduk opened his mouth and closed it again, ignoring the demon's smug look when he couldn't come up with a better way to explain it. "So is that what you were dreaming about the last three nights?"

"Yeah. I don't know why. I just wake up there and I'm like a ghost. I couldn't touch anything, influence anything, I was just there watching. I didn't know, until it forced me to watch, that you two loved her and were having sex with her." He frowned. "And it pissed me the fuck off. I had to just stand there and watch. There was nothing I could do. I couldn't stop you, I couldn't say anything to her, and I couldn't look away."

"Were you jealous?"

"What the hell do you think, Gemma? Of course I was! I love you two, you think I _wanted_ to see you in the arms of a woman!"

"But you don't have a problem with the two of us having sex? Isn't that a double standard?"

He blushed just a little. "I don't know. I don't want you with anyone, anyone else at all, but thinking about you two having sex is..."

"Really erotic?"

"...Yeah."

"I'd show you, but there's something that I want more."

"What?"

"You."

Marduk stilled Gemma's hands. "We can wait, Kaito. You've just had an intense revelation and a lot of information thrown at you."

Wait?! He was suggesting waiting?! "If you think I'm waiting for one more minute, you're dead wrong," Kaito told him and knocked Marduk to the floor before immediately tackling him for a strong kiss. "Fuck if I'm gonna let Eri have you any more than she already did. It's time I got my share!"

"Gemma, you're an absolutely terrible influence!"

Gemma laughed long and loud at Marduk's statement. "I love it! Looks like I corrupted our little innocent Kaito long before I got to his body!" The demon settled behind him and fingers were insistently stroking his opening.

"What makes you think you get him first?" the angel argued, sitting up and also reaching behind him. Kaito grunted as he felt one of Gemma's  fingers and one of Marduk's invading him.

"You really want to fight me over this?"

"Sh-Shut up," he muttered. "You can both have me tonight, does it matter who goes first?!"

"Of course it does. You'll probably be too sore for more than once."

Kaito glared over his shoulder at Gemma. "I can handle it!"

"Oh really?"

"Yes!"

"...I'm still going first."

"You are not!"

Kaito couldn't put an end to argument this time because suddenly there were more than two fingers and they were thrusting into him, making him cry out several times. He lost track of the conversation for a bit, too lost in the sensations. Then suddenly he found himself being turned and bent over, Marduk leaning over his back. "Relax, Kaito."

He looked up, eyes right in line with Gemma's glistening arousal. The demon was smirking at him, a thumb sliding into his mouth and stroking his tongue. "Open up wide for Marduk. I can tell you from experience, he's _big_."

He shouted when he was slowly being invaded. Gemma hadn't lied! Kaito hadn't had a chance to look at Marduk's size before, but this was impossible! How could someone that big fit _anyone_?! "Relax," the angel whispered, kissing all along his shoulder as he inexorably pushed deeper.

"Hurts," he muttered, holding Gemma's thumb between his teeth.

"I know, but it'll get better." The demon leaned over a little. "Almost all the way in, aren't you slutty, Kaito? Have you been touching yourself there when you masturbate?"

"N-No!"

"I believe him," Marduk grunted, sitting up a little. "He's so...damn...tight!" Kaito felt Marduk shift, pull out an inch and then slide forward again. He did it twice more before Kaito shouted. "Think I found it."

The angel set up a rocking motion and he felt that pleasure race up his spine like lightning every time he pushed back in. If he'd thought his other orgasms were the best he'd ever had, it was nothing compared to this. He could barely hold himself up.

"You think that's it?" Gemma murmured, his voice dark and seductive. "Open your eyes."

Kaito did, unable to do anything but what they ordered him to. He was eye level with the demon's waist, and fingers lifted his chin a little. "Open up, Kaito. It's my turn."

A surge of arousal went through him at that and he immediately allowed Gemma to slide into his mouth. Clawed hands slid into his hair and he listened to all the quiet, whispered instructions. Use his tongue more, don't worry if he accidentally nipped with his teeth. He moaned around that length, needing an outlet for the pleasure in the worst way. Here he was, right where he always wanted to be, and judging from the sounds above him, Gemma and Marduk were right where they wanted to be too.

"Kaito, I'm going to really start moving now," Marduk warned him. This time the rocking motion was changed when the angel almost pulled out completely only to push back in quickly. He shouted, sending vibrations down Gemma's length when that stimulated area was all but slammed into.

"Fuck, do that again, Marduk!" Gemma spat, holding Kaito's head tighter. "Shit!"

Hands tightened on his hips and Kaito clenched instinctively. Marduk grunted in pleasure and only moved faster because of it. He lifted one hand, using his other arm to brace all his weight on it, and stroked Gemma's sack, prompting the demon to lose almost all composure and start thrusting into his mouth, matching Marduk's rhythm.

"Shit, sorry, Kaito. I know...you're not ready for this...but I just need you so much. I'll try not to gag you..."

Kaito lost all sense of time after that. He tried desperately to keep up with Gemma's hips, stroking with his tongue for all he was worth, but that only made the demon speed up. Marduk was barely keeping his pace even because every time Gemma pulled out, he clenched up as he instinctively tried to follow.

"Oh my God," Marduk prayed, voice filled with awe. "Your body is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, Kaito."

"Nggh, Marduk?"

"Yeah?"

"Gonna last much longer?"

"No." The word came out half a moan.

"Me neither."

He felt, rather than saw, both Marduk and Gemma leaning over him. Not one, but two hands gripped him between his legs. They fumbled before they both settled into a matching rhythm and Kaito screamed in pleasure. There was no way he could hold it back any longer. Just as Gemma thrust deep into his mouth, letting him feel him to the back of his throat and his throat spasmed, he thrust his hips back into Marduk as he pushed in fiercely one last time. Even as he sprayed over the floor, he felt something wet soak his insides and more spurt into his mouth. Gemma pulled out quickly as he began to cough, swallowing half and the other landing on the floor as he struggled to breathe.

"S-Shit, sorry, Kaito. You're way too new for that, I shouldn't have done that."

Gemma helped him sit up, leaning him back against Marduk, then wrapped his arms around him. "S'okay," he muttered.

"See? I told you, you'd be too tired to do it again."

"Like hell," Kaito said and pulled Gemma close, kissing him soundly. "Just lemme get my breath back, okay?"

"God, I love you, Kaito," Marduk murmured in his ear, leaning forward and pressing him against Gemma.

Gemma grabbed his thighs, yanking their hips forward as he took over the kiss and pushed his passion onto the smaller mortal. He could feel lips smile against his ear as he whimpered. "I didn't tell you that Gemma's sex drive out performs most succubi. It's thanks to him that I've developed a great deal of _stamina_."

Kaito gasped when he had his mouth back and Gemma was smirking at him like a cat who had just gotten cream, fish, and bird at once. He looked down, noting that huge erection already waiting. "Knowing that, you're sure you want to take me on tonight?"

"Hell yes."

"Then, Marduk, if you would."

Marduk slid out of him and he unwillingly moaned at the loss before he was picked up and set on his knees facing the angel. "What...?"

"Hold onto me, Kaito."

A minute later he could see why. Gemma pushed in while he was still soft and open, and pushed in hard. He shouted, gripping Marduk's arms to keep him steady as the demon drove in mercilessly. Hands were stroking him before he realized he was even hard again.

"Ready to lose the other half of your virginity, Kaito?" Gemma murmured.

"What?"

Marduk pulled his hands behind his back, urging his fingers to slide in. "Wait, you're letting me...?!"

"Kaito, I don't care and neither does Gemma. We're all right no matter what you want."

"Granted, our favorite is driving into you like this and watching you scream helplessly, but trust us, you doing the taking is more than enough to make us crazy."

"We're content to do either top or bottom," Marduk murmured as he slid his fingers in beside Kaito's teaching him how to move them and where to touch.

"I'm not as big as you two..."

"Who is?" Gemma snickered and thrust in deep to prove his point, making Kaito scream.

"You'll still be pleasuring me," Marduk told him before he laid on his back and opened his legs.

A little awestruck, Kaito pulled the angel's hips into his lap and lined himself up. White wings spread like a blanket over the wooden floor and he finally got to see... "So white is your natural color."

Marduk laughed and he used that opening to thrust in. No wonder Marduk gasped! If he was tighter than Marduk, it must have been strangling within him!

"Don't worry, I'll pound you into him, good and hard," Gemma told him. Hands gripped his hips and he found himself leaned over the angel as they started to move fiercely. Marduk moaned loudly and pulled him down to kiss him over and over again.

"What a pity he's not a screamer like you," his demon lover whispered in his ear. "I _love_ a screamer!"

Kaito couldn't form coherent words at that point. His whole body was shaking under the onslaught and he buried his face in Marduk's neck. Gemma leaned down with him, not willing to let his ear go unmolested by words or lips.

"You like it when we take over the pace, huh?" Kaito whimpered and nodded. "Hell that turns me on so much! Eri never cared, let us do whatever, but there's nothing better than being with someone that wants me to dominate them. Even better than that if it's a threesome!"

"I'm...better than...her?"

Gemma's hips actually paused a little, as if he couldn't believe he'd just asked that question. Kaito peered over his shoulder, glassy-eyed with lust. "You'd...ask something...stupid like that?"

"He's jealous, Gemma," Marduk murmured, leaving teethmarks behind on Kaito's shoulder.

"...Kaito...Fuck, Kaito, you don't even compare. Not only do you want this, but you want it my way. Our way. Oh hell!" Gemma threw himself into thrusting again, even more passionate than before. "You give me control...because you love feeling me taking it from you, not because you don't care!"

Kaito screamed as he abruptly came, unable to hold it any longer. He looked down, frustrated that Marduk and Gemma hadn't come, but the angel kissed it away, sitting up and holding him tight. "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever felt, Kaito."

He pushed back against Gemma, forcing the demon to move back a little. Before either could react, he'd leaned down and licked along Marduk's length. Like hell he was letting this go without his angelic lover coming!

"K-Kaito...you don't...God... My soul is so damned, I love this so much!"

Gemma growled, a feral sound and slapped Kaito's ass hard. He yelped in shock just as his lovers came hard. He was a tad better prepared this time and didn't cough nearly so much. Gemma was even more gentle than Marduk as he pulled out and Kaito was really, very glad of that. Now that he wasn't in a pleasure-induced haze, he realized just how much he actually hurt.

"Damn it, Kaito!" Gemma swore. "I shouldn't have let you talk me into this."

Marduk leaned over as Kaito collapsed on the ground. "Well at least you're not bleeding, but I didn't think you'd be so impulsive, Kaito."

"M'fine."

"Very funny. You're not fine at all. You're fucking lucky that Marduk's good at healing."

Marduk's hand slid along his opening and it felt as if he'd pressed something cool against him. The pain dissipated completely, only leaving soreness and an inability to walk behind. He grinned up at the two of them as they gave him disapproving looks. "You think I care? That was the best damn night of my life, worth every bit of a pain I might go through even if he couldn't heal anything at all."

Gemma glared at him a little, but it softened at Kaito's unrepentant and downright wicked smile. "I hate that I'm wrapped around your little finger." The demon picked him up and the three of them curled up in front of the fireplace.

"When did you light that?"

"When you were sleeping. It was hell finding enough dry wood for a fire."

Marduk wrapped the large blanket he habitually carried around them. "I didn't think it would hurt to have extra warmth just in case, so I made Gemma go find some firewood."

Kaito laughed. "How'd you manage that?"

"You don't want to know," the demon sulked. "Why does he always win everything?"

"Are you seriously going to pout after all that?" he asked incredulously.

"What, you think two orgasms is enough?" Gemma leaned down and nuzzled his ear. "I'm used to a lot more."

He sighed, drawing their attention. "Eventually, I guess."

"What do you mean? You didn't like it?"

Kaito shook his head at Marduk's question. "No, it's not that, but...I came so quickly both times."

Gemma laughed. "Well, to be fair, we came pretty damn quick the first time too. We'd waited too damn long for you. Anyway the more we do it, the more stamina you'll get. I say we spend all day tomorrow working on stamina exercises!"

"I think I saw a bed on the second floor," Marduk added thoughtfully, smirking just a tiny bit at Kaito's shocked look that he agreed.

"Speaking of which...how'd you guys decide who had me first?"

"Weren't you paying attention?"

"Was a bit busy with you two's fingers up my ass."

"Rock, paper, scissors."

"That, and I told him that he'd be the one 'corrupting' your mouth first," Marduk added dryly. "Now, you need to sleep. I'm surprised you’re even conscious right now."

"I don't know. I'm kind of afraid to try. Every night I keep having dreams."

"Why did those start anyway?" Gemma asked.

"I don't know, nothing changed."

"Wait, that sapphire."

They looked at him then over at his pack. Marduk pulled it closer and fiddled through it before pulling it out. "I don't sense anything."

"Close your eyes and try to sleep, we'll watch this. We can always put a magic-suppressing barrier around it if necessary."

"Can you do that?"

"Me? Nah. Marduk can, though."

The angel frowned. "I can, but it's not one of favorite spells to use because of the initial strain at casting it."

"You don't have to--" At Marduk's look, Kaito shut up. "Fine, I'm going to sleep." Almost as soon as his eyes were closed, he was dead to the world.


	7. Chapter 7

Kaito slept in far later than he had anticipated or even wanted. Apparently his poor sleep the last three nights had caught up with him. He found himself alone in a bed, covered in his own blanket. Anything of value in the house was gone, even the rugs. At least the windows in this bedroom weren't broken. He didn't see Gemma and Marduk at a glance, but the signs of their presence were there. There was a cloth on a heavy bedside table that proved to be food and a cup of water next to it. Realizing how famished he was, he ate what was set out. That was all their travel rations, though.

As he wasn't sure whether the two were in his soul or just not in the room, he sent out a magical pulse that would force them to materialize if they were inside him. They didn't appear, so that meant they had to be around here somewhere.

He was about to try standing when the door was thrown open. "Going somewhere?" Gemma asked.

"Where were you?"

"Marduk went to the next town to buy more food, you're out, and I was left to guard you."

"I can take care of myself you know."

"Not with how deeply you were asleep."

Gemma sat back on the bed with him, running a claw idly down Kaito's chest. He suppressed a shiver and asked, "What about the sapphire? Did anything happen after I fell asleep?"

The demon frowned. "It started glowing a little soon as you were asleep and Marduk put a suppressing barrier on it. It's magical, of that there's no doubt, but even when it was glowing, I didn't really feel more than a tiny trickle of presence from it. Maybe it's because your magic is so strong that sensing something that weak is impossible unless you're looking for it."

So it was his fault? "Could you tell anything about the enchantment?"

"Not really. It felt different than what I've usually seen, but it feels as if I should know it, for some reason. You got it from that merchant, right? Where'd he get it?"

"I don't know, but we should head back to Glassdell and ask him. We'll go as soon as Marduk gets back."

"What?" Gemma sounded surprised and wounded. "Leave so soon?"

"Well...yes. Why?"

"What do you think?" The demon leaned in licked at his neck. "I want to refresh some of these marks."

"Marks?" Kaito looked down and turned red. There were red kiss marks all over him! Even with his clothes, some would likely be seen over the collar of his coat! "Gemma!"

"I wasn't the only one leaving those, you know. And I think I know where my next mark should be. Right...here." He wrapped his lips around Kaito's left nipple.

"Gemma!" he gasped.

"Couldn't even wait until I got back?"

They looked over at the doorway toward Marduk. The angel dropped a bag on the floor and approached the bed. Fingers lifted Kaito's chin and then those lips were on his, nipping and begging for his mouth to open. When he could only do as he was silently commanded, a strong tongue slipped inside as if it belonged there.

"Marduk," he moaned when the kiss broke.

"We don't have to leave so soon, do we?" Gemma sultry murmured in his ear.

"...No..."

Teasingly, Gemma pulled down the blanket and began kissing down his chest toward his half-hard length. "You're sure you're all right?" Marduk asked. "I can stop the sex-crazed idiot."

"Don't stop," he moaned, spreading his legs as the demon got closer.

Marduk sat down next to him and slid fingers down his back, fingering his entrance before immediately sliding one in. "That's good, because we weren't about to leave."

"He's so hard already," Gemma commented, running a finger up his now fully hard and aching desire. Without warning, hands yanked him down until he was lying flat on his back. "Are you trying to frustrate us by sitting like that when all we want is you on your back with your legs open?"

Marduk shed his clothes quickly before setting between Kaito's legs, pressing two of his fingers inside. Despite how fast he was, Gemma was even faster and the demon was soon naked. "My turn to feel you, Kaito." He braced his knees on either side of the mortal's head and leaned down, licking at the erection in his face.

Kaito shouted when Marduk pressed his third finger in and began to thrust them, loosening his body. Gemma shuddered when he wrapped his mouth around his cock.

"Gemma," he moaned, distracted when the demon lightly nipped him and was unprepared when Marduk pushed deeply inside him. He screamed a little, thrusting his hips immediately up into that feeling. He remembered last night, remembered how good it had felt. "Never...knew...sex felt this good," he moaned.

"I think he's addicted already," the demon laughed, sitting up and moving. Kaito shifted his gaze from the ceiling to watch as Gemma impaled himself on his erection.

"Gemma! You weren't...prepared...!"

Gemma smiled at him, a very rare real smile. "So worried. I did it myself earlier." He moaned when his demonic lover leaned down and kissed him fiercely. "Fuck me, Kaito. Hard!"

"He'll go at my pace," Marduk said, increasing his speed just a little.

"Your pace is so torturous," Gemma complained as Kaito reached up and wrapped his arms around him.

"I don't care about pace, just let me feel you," he moaned. His entire body was thrumming with pleasure, his legs shaking a little as he tried to assimilate it all.

"You can still talk, mm? Then we aren't pleasing you enough." Gemma tightened viciously around him and he screamed, shifting his hips harder, more forcefully, back against Marduk. Immediately the movement was sped up, as if he couldn't help it. Hands were gripping his thighs tightly, raking nails lightly up the sensitive insides and he shrieked, throbbing inside the demon.

If their goal was to make him forget even who he was, they were succeeding. He wasn't remembering anything beyond the two who were currently dancing in and on his crotch. Gemma nipped his tongue with his sharp teeth and it was enough to send him over the edge hard. Marduk slowed and then stopped altogether, even though Kaito could feel that he was still hard as a rock.

"Now you've claimed both of us as we've claimed you," the angel murmured, reaching around Gemma and stroking his shaking stomach.

"I love you," was he could murmur. He didn't have to add the word 'two' or any name; they knew that he meant them both.

"Love you too," Gemma murmured, slipping off him. "Now it's our turn." Kaito nodded and the demon straddled his shoulders. Just as he was about to hold the hips in front of him, clawed hands gripped his wrists and shoved them back into the bed. "Open up, Kaito."

That soft, sexy voice was like someone stroking on his soft, sensitive flesh and he did as ordered instantly. That hard flesh slid inside without a pause and he groaned when Marduk started to move, slow but hard inside him. He was stabbing against that pleasure area every time and every time, Kaito shouted desperately around Gemma.

This time the demon was gentler in his thrusting, not hitting the back of his throat hard enough to invoke his gag reflex. His emerald eyes met red and he could see, clear as day, the depth of emotion that Gemma was allowing him to see. Kaito knew he was loved fiercely by both of them and his eyes closed in sheer emotional pleasure. He was the object of their affections and he felt humbled by it.

"Get ready, Kaito," Gemma warned, picking up his pace. He could tell the demon was throbbing, so close to releasing. Kaito squeezed hard around Marduk, who let out his own shout. It was the first time he'd ever heard it and any restraint the angel had disappeared.

Kaito moaned deep in his throat when Marduk released, following a second later by Gemma. When the demon pulled away, Kaito was able to swallow almost all of it. Marduk slid out and before he'd even registered what they were doing, Kaito was trapped between the two of them in a tight hug.

"I like it better when I can hold you," the angel murmured in his ear.

"You're such a sap, Marduk."

Marduk eyeballed Gemma and ignored his comment completely. "Kaito, what are you planning to tell your parents?"

Kaito struggled up long enough so that he could undo what little was left of his braid and finger comb his long mahogany-colored hair. "The truth, what else?"

"You really think that's a good idea? _That_ conversation is gonna go real well! 'Mother, Father, I'm currently fucking the angel and demon that are attached to my soul even though they're both male.'"

He glared at Gemma. "Well what do you expect me to say?"

"Nothing," the demon replied with a wave of his wrist. "They don't need to know. If they ask if you're interested in someone, just say it's someone from another village or something."

"They're going to want to meet whoever I love eventually."

"Look, I'm telling you, you need to keep quiet about this. Think about it: explaining that you have a male lover is bad enough, but you have _two_. You're in a poly amorous relationship, that's hard for a small town to accept. On top of that, one's an angel and one's a demon. Third, they're attached to your soul and the only physical bodies they have are based entirely on your magic! Maybe your mother wouldn't have too much of a problem, but I think you'll kill your father! The only place this scenario wouldn't make that much waves in is in Hell and you ain't there."

"I'm not lying to my parents, Gemma and that's it."

"This is all your fault," the demon spat at Marduk, who'd remained silent. "He's got this _thing_ about telling the truth from you."

"I just asked what he was going to say, not whether he should."

"What, so you think I shouldn't tell them either?"

Marduk was silent for a few minutes. "I don't know. You are their only child and while part of me wants to say they just want you to be happy, I can't predict their reactions. What I really meant was if you were going to tell them about your past life as Eri and what you are. I think that'd be more than enough of a shock as it is, don't you think? If you do decide to tell them about our relationship, I think it'd be best for one revelation at a time."

He hadn't thought about that. In fact, Marduk and Gemma had driven all thoughts of what he was from his mind for awhile. If Marduk hadn't mentioned it, he'd have forgotten about it. He didn't feel any different knowing that he was an artificially created hybrid and he could only thank Marduk and Gemma's presence his entire life that he accepted this fact with surprising quickness.

But other people wouldn't. His parents wouldn't. Wasn't telling them of what he was more important than who he was currently courting? "Do you two think...that my body is like Eri's?" he asked. "She tried to kill herself so many times, but it was as if her body just couldn't die. You think I should test it?"

The resounding, in unison, shout of 'No!' answered that succinctly.

"Don't even fucking think about it," Gemma spat. "If I even get the hint that you're contemplating testing that out, I'll fucking kill you."

"Wouldn't that--"

"You know what I mean!"

Kaito laughed at them, despite the fact that both of his lovers were frowning. He knew that they could never joke about something like that, but Kaito just didn't feel the same gravity about it. Sure he was Eri's reincarnation, but knowing her suicide attempts was just that: knowledge. He had no emotional attachment to the statement one way or another.

"You have enough energy to laugh?" the demon muttered, sidling up behind him. "Guess that means we haven't worn you out enough."

"One more time and then we really have to get moving," he said, cheeks turning faintly red when he watched clawed hands spreading his legs.

"Awww, one more time he says."

"Gemma, it's not as if I don't want to spend all day in bed with you two, but Marduk can't keep the sapphire in a barrier forever and I really want to know why it's causing me to have dreams of a past life I don't really care about."

Two fingers slid into him and Kaito let out a groan of anticipation. "Do you know how rare it is to be around a bed?"

"Stop complaining. We sleep in bed most of the time," Marduk countered as he leaned in to kiss Kaito deeply.

"Shit, just having him a handful of times isn't enough!"

"Of course it isn't," the angel murmured as he watched lips slowly kiss down his chest, the destination obvious. "But as much as I want to agree with you, Kaito has a point."

"You just hate it when I win, that's all!"

Marduk couldn't reply because by that point, Kaito had found what he'd been going toward. His tongue licked from his sack to his tip before pulling him deep into his mouth. A moment later, Kaito moaned when he felt Gemma slide in, but instead of moving, he froze.

"G-Gemma...?"

"If this is the last time for now, then I'm going to take my time."

"Gemma...!"

"I can't disagree with you there," Marduk muttered, nudging past Kaito's lips again and gently rocking more than thrusting into his mouth. Gemma caught the rhythm, ignoring the desperate begging for faster and harder from the man between them.

"Please," Kaito moaned when he felt Gemma's stomach against him when he pushed in fully.

"Now you can't leave Marduk hanging, can you?" the demon murmured, leaning down to whisper in his ear. "He needs your mouth."

Fingers dove into his hair, pulling him forward and he sucked hard on Marduk's tip before swallowing him again. Just when he thought they couldn't torture him any further, something soft and silky brushed over his aching erection, causing him to shout and clamp down on Gemma.

"Do you like being stroked by our wings that much, Kaito?"

How could Marduk sound so calm? The only way to tell how much pleasure he was in was that he sounded a tad breathier than usual. Like he was letting that go! Marduk should be moaning! Trying to ignore the shivering of lust that those white and black wings were causing, he put more energy into his tongue and jaw.

"K-Kaito?! Oh God...!"

Before Gemma could find a witty comment, he squeezed like a vice when the demon was pulling out only to loosen as the abrupt and hard thrust had him shaking.

"Fuck! D-Don't do that, Kaito!"

Kaito ignored them and instead continued. He was learning what they liked every time they did this and if they were going to exploit all of _his_ weaknesses, he was going to do the same right back! Before long, Gemma couldn't hold back any longer and he shook at the suddenly fierce pace. It quickened what he was doing on Marduk, who was moaning almost all the time now.

Before he could beg someone to touch him, two fumbling hands grabbed him and began to stroke him hard, desperately so. Kaito whimpered as the pace became frenetic and he could hardly see anything at all besides the black and white of Marduk and Gemma's wings.

"Fuck, Kaito!"

"Kaito!"

Hearing them call his name was all he could take and he shouted out his climax just before he felt theirs. This time he was able to swallow almost every drop of Marduk's release even as he felt Gemma's sliding down between his legs. "Hell...Kaito..." the demon panted, collapsing against his back. "Why can I never resist you?"

Marduk pulled from his mouth just as his limbs went limp and he landed face first into the bed. "Gemma... Gemma, you're heavy."

"Not moving, I'm enjoying myself right here." But after a minute his lover did slide out and collapsed next to him. Kaito pushed himself up and then attempted to get to his feet. His legs were shaky as hell and he had to use the nightstand next to the bed to stay up, but it didn't hurt really. He was just sore as hell and he couldn't close his legs naturally.

"How can you even move?" Gemma complained. Marduk was just staring at him dazedly, as if he couldn't be bothered to form words.

"I told you, we have to move now if I want to catch that gem seller, supposing he's still in Glassdell right now."

"Kaiitooo..."

"Gemma, if you at least attempt to get up, I'll let you do whatever you want to me tonight when we make camp or get a room at the inn."

There was an unholy glee in the demon's eyes at that. "Deal!"

"You really shouldn't have said that," Marduk told him, but there was a wicked smile on his angelic face all the same.

Seeing the sudden burst of energy from his demon lover, Kaito silently agreed.


	8. Chapter 8

Kaito managed to make it by early afternoon, and this time it was only half Gemma and Marduk's fault. Walking was proving more difficult than he imagined and it took him awhile because if he rushed, he was afraid his legs would give out on him. Gemma took great pleasure in asking if he wanted to be carried, which he steadfastly refused every time out of a pride. As if that wasn't bad enough, he'd never seen Gemma looking so smug and excited in his life. What exactly was the demon planning when they made camp that night?

The Glassdell city guard must have spotted him coming because just before he got to the gates of the city, he was met by the captain and a small contingent of guards. Great. This was not what he needed. Wasn't the captain always complaining he didn't have enough men to do everything? So why was he there harassing one person?

"I thought I told you that I didn't want you here any more."

"Too bad for you that I didn't do anything wrong," Kaito spat. Gemma and Marduk glanced at him in surprise at his tone. Usually he was the one with the best temper of the three of them. Normally Kaito honestly wouldn't have said that, but his back was killing him and if he had to suffer through one more of the demon's lecherous looks before he got to that merchant, he was going to kill someone.

"We don't allow monsters in our town."

"He's not a monster!" Gemma hissed, hands rushing toward the hilts of his swords. "If you don't back off, I'll hang you with your own intestines."

"Gemma!" he protested, knowing threats like that weren't helping. He turned to Marduk for help, but the angel was already unsheathing his long sword. "Marduk!"

"Explain to me that you're not a monster after that statement! You have an angel and a demon as part of your soul, that makes you not human, and do you have any idea how much a demon could influence you? How do I know you're not just like him?"

Kaito watched in horror as Gemma's temper broke and he surged forward, followed by Marduk, and he did the only thing he could that he _knew_ was going to piss them off but was his only chance to avoid bloodshed. He yanked his power back viciously and they disappeared from sight. He really hated to do that to them because they were just angry on his behalf and the captain was being an asshole, but killing people wasn't going to help. He could trust that maybe Marduk could control himself, but with Gemma, it was all up in the air. Demons were unpredictable and Gemma was no exception.

"I can control them," Kaito muttered, even though that was only half true. He could control whether they appeared or not, but not their actions. "Now let me pass. I have business in Glassdell."

"What are you planning on doing?"

"I need to talk to a gem merchant I escorted here three days ago."

"Then he's probably not here any more, so leave."

An eyebrow rose. The captain was reaching for excuses, wasn't he? Glassdell was the second largest city in the kingdom, beaten in size only by the capital. It stretched for what seemed like miles over the ground and districts outnumbered the city guard. It was cramped inside in some places, buildings shoved together to keep as much room as possible. There were several inner walls in the city that served no purpose other than to show just how much the city had outgrown them.

"He had a lot of uncut gems and I'm sure he'd still be here getting them done. Now I'm entering peacefully, not having drawn a single weapon, and if you want to stop me, you'll have to try to kill me. Of course, that means that you, as an upstanding citizen and captain of the guard, just committed assault without provocation."

The captain's jaw clenched in anger, but he didn't draw his weapon as Kaito deliberately went around them so not even a brush of their shoulders could be construed as an attack. He waited until he was well into the city and turned down a nearly empty street before he called Gemma and Marduk back out.

They were not happy.

"What the fuck, Kaito?!"

"I'm sorry," he said contritely. "Really! I didn't want to do it, but you two were going to slaughter the guard! I'd never get inside if that happened and besides, they didn't really do anything that deserved death."

"Insulting you is enough!"

"Gemma! It is not!"

"It is if I say so!"

"Is not and Marduk! Why did you go along with it?!"

Marduk didn't look the least apologetic as he'd expected. "I wouldn't have killed them, but they deserved a beating for what they were saying."

"Damn it, Marduk! I didn't think even you--"

His words were cut off by the abrupt, angry kiss from the angel, followed by an equally if not more so, angry one from Gemma. In the middle of the street. Where there were at least seven people watching. Kaito stumbled back against the side of a building, feeling his knees go weak. Marduk grabbed one wrist, Gemma the other, as they were pinned against the brick. "Wh-What?"

"You owe _us_ an apology," Marduk stated.

"What?!"

"You fucking forced us back in!"

"Because you weren't listening to reason!" he argued at Gemma. "And I already apologized!"

"It wasn't good enough!"

"Gemma!"

"I refuse to accept that _I'm_ in the wrong for defending my lover against some racist, xenophobic asshole!"

"I never said you were in the wrong for that, just for attacking them!"

"I'm not apologizing for that either!"

"Kaito," Marduk stated sternly, "what bothers us isn't that you stopped us."

"Like hell that doesn't bother me!"

"What bothers us is that you forced us back as if we did something wrong by caring about you. That you felt you had to control us with force, rather than try to reason with us. You assumed that we'd kill them; you didn't trust us. Gemma can yell all he wants, but he'd only go to that extreme if you were being physically hurt. He wouldn't have killed them."

Under the weight of their stares, Kaito felt like he was tiny. "I'm sorry," he whispered sincerely. "I didn't want to, but I felt that there was no other way to stop you. I'm not as fast or as good as you two. I had my reasons, but I'm sorry anyway. Really."

"Prove it," Gemma spat.

"How?"

"You figure it out."

He looked up at the demon, seeing the hurt plain as day even though Gemma was trying to hide it behind his anger. Kaito squirmed his wrists free, reached up, and pulled the demon down into a blistering kiss regardless of their audience. "I'm sorry," he whispered, their lips still touching as he spoke before he did the same to Marduk. Their arms and wings enveloped him as they kissed several more times.

"...Fuck. Fine, I forgive you."

"Thank you." He paused. "You two can let me go now."

"Why should I?"

"Gemma...! I have to find that merchant and I already promised that you could have the entire night to do whatever you wanted to me!"

"You want out, then get out."

"I can't even move! Any more and you'll be lifting me off the ground!"

"Sounds like a good idea."

He gave a squeak of surprise when it was not Gemma, but Marduk that lifted him up and braced him against his shoulder with an arm under his ass. "Where was the merchant's store?"

" _Marduk, put me down right the fuck now!_ "

"The more you walk, the more tired you'll get. We're _quite_ refreshed now, so let us handle it."

"I don't mind this position," Gemma said with a grin, reaching out and squeezing Kaito's ass. Kaito squeaked again, grabbing onto Marduk's shoulder to steady himself as they started walking.

"Damn it, I'm almost six feet tall and I'm a man, this isn't dignified, put me the fuck down!"

"Consider this punishment for earlier."

"I already apologized!" he all but howled.

"We didn't say that you wouldn't get punished."

"Gemma! When I get down from here...!"

The demon smirked at him, grabbed his chin, and kissed fiercely. "I'm looking forward to whatever you're planning."

Left with no recourse except to knee Marduk in the gut, Kaito sullenly directed the angel to the gem store. It was locked and the man in question didn't seem to be there, so they waited. He had expected Marduk to put him down, but his lover seemed perfectly content to just stand there holding him like that. Kaito was in a precarious position because he refused to put his legs around the angel's waist and look even more ridiculous. He would have thought that one wrong move would topple him out of the angel's arms, but the man was compensating for every one of his shifts.

It was hours later, nearing sunset, when the merchant returned and Kaito was close to losing his temper with being held and Gemma's molesting of his ass. "Oh thank god!" he muttered.

"You three?" The man looked at their odd positioning. "Uh...what...can I do for you?"

"About that sapphire I picked out..."

"What about it?"

"Where did you get it?"

There was an apprehensive look on his face. "Well..."

"I don't care how you got it, really, just from where."

"I got it from a...well, he called himself a purveyor of rare artifacts."

"In other words, a thief," Gemma added helpfully even though that wasn't necessary.

"Did he say where he got it?" Kaito asked hopefully.

"Somewhere in the south. He said something about a tribe that lived in a thick, tropical forest."

"Any more specific in the location?"

"Only that you could find the tribe before you reached the swamp."

"Looks like that's where we go then," Kaito said. "Now, Marduk, put me down so I can get us a room and--Marduk!"

Marduk had turned, heading for the nearest inn, but hadn't loosened his grip. Gemma, following behind, was giving him a wicked grin. "My turn," the demon murmured as walked in the door.


	9. Chapter 9

"Um...Gemma?"

"Yeah?"

"Are...Are you sure about this?"

"'Course. I practiced on Marduk."

"...oh joy."

Somewhere nearby, he thought he heard a snicker from Marduk.

"You don't trust me?"

"O-Of course I do, but...I'd trust you _more_ if I wasn't currently tied up and blindfolded."

Gemma laughed and Kaito jumped a little when he suddenly felt a hand stroke his ass. He bit his lip when those fingers rubbed lightly against his entrance, but didn't penetrate, as if he was greatly enjoying this. "Come on, open your legs, Kaito."

"Gemma..."

The demon's lips pressed against his ear and he whispered, "Kaito...do what I tell you, okay?"

Blushing just a little, he did as he was told and hissed in pleasure when he felt a tongue on his erection. "Marduk!"

"You know, you're really good at telling who's who. Even when we sneaked up on you years ago, you could tell."

"'C-Course..." He would have loved to explain the nuances of their movement, touch, and scent, but his sanity had fled.

"What do you think we're going to do to you?" He whined that he didn't know, his head falling back in lust and pleasure when a single finger slipped inside. "Come on, take a guess."

"Um...have sex with me?"

There was a long-suffering sigh. "You're no good at this talking thing, are you?"

Before he could reply, Marduk's mouth wrapped around him and he shouted a little before biting his tongue. He didn't want the entire inn to know what they were doing!

A second finger slipped in, but this one was just a little longer. "Marduk!" There was a faint humming sound that thrummed along his length and he squirmed.

"You're getting loud." Gemma kissed his neck hard, and Kaito knew that he'd left a mark behind. "Guess we'll need to fix that." A second later, he felt something soft being pressed against his mouth. Obediently he allowed his mouth to open and the cotton strap was tied at the back of his head. At least that meant that he wouldn't mangle his tongue any more.

Marduk's mouth pulled away and he whimpered in protest. That same tongue licked at the other side of his neck as a third finger slipped in. Gemma growled a little. "You know, this could be so much better if we had a few toys or something."

"I don't think he's ready for that."

"Oh shut up, it's not like you have to worry because I don't _have_ \--" There was a profound silence before suddenly Gemma burst out gleefully, "Hold on, I'll be right back!"

"Wait, where are--" The door slammed. "...you going..." Marduk finished with a heavy sigh. "I think I know where he's going." A soft kiss was laid on his jaw. "Looks like you'll have to get used to it sooner than later."

Get used to _what_? When was Gemma coming back? Where they seriously going to leave him like this?! Marduk's reassuring embrace as he merely touched and pampered was doing nothing but making his lust worse. The longer Gemma was gone, the more he worried.

He heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs before the door was thrown open, only to close just as loudly. He felt Marduk lift his head from Kaito's chest. There was a moment of silence before the angel burst out, "You are _not_ using that on him!"

"What? Why not?"

"I said no!"

"But he'll love it!"

"Absolutely not! Later, maybe, but not right now!"

"Che. Fine. What about this?"

"No." A pause. "No." Another pause. "No! God no! Gemma!"

"You're so damn picky! Stop babying him so much!"

" _That_ is borderline torture device!"

"Oh, it is not! Zai uses it all the time with his lover."

"And what does that tell you?!"

Kaito's concerned whimper interrupted the argument before it got worse. He could only imagine the looks they shared before the demon settled on the bed with them. "Okay, okay, we'll work up to the hard stuff. Don't worry, Kaito."

He felt something cold and smooth pressing against his entrance and he squirmed in protest. Gemma didn't let him run, though, and just pressed it inside. A second followed the first and he shouted into the gag. The two smooth balls kept moving every time he so much as twitched. He let out a grunt of protest when suddenly the demon's hands grabbed his hips and pulled them up, until Kaito was braced on his shoulders. A tongue slipped inside, nudging the balls, and he moaned loudly.

"Kaito," Marduk muttered, "it's okay, just relax. We'd never hurt you. You know, maybe we should at least remove the blindfold."

Kaito nodded frantically. There was something about feeling these odd things being done to him while he couldn't see that was making him uneasy. Fingers dove into his brown hair and he leaned into the angel's hand.

"No. Just consider it food for thought for earlier when he forced us back in and we couldn't see what was going on."

"Haven't we punished him enough for that?"

"This _isn't_ punishment. I'd never use sex as punishment on Kaito!"

"Then let's remove the blindfold."

"...Shit, fine. If only he stops looking like that."

When the blindfold was removed, he blinked at the light in the room before focusing on his two lovers. Gemma was frowning, but he leaned down and kissed his eyelids. "Damn, Kaito, you don't have to look so scared next time. Sorry, I guess I really was moving too fast. Marduk's just over-protects you too much for me to trust him."

Kaito brushed his gagged mouth against Gemma's and the demon smiled a little. "...You're still cute, you know. Now _relax_ , would you?" Red eyes turned half-accusingly at Marduk. "Any _other_ complaints?"

"No." Marduk smiled his companion before leaning forward to lick at Kaito's throbbing erection.

His neck and shoulders were starting to complain loudly at his position, but when Gemma started nudging those balls around inside again with his tongue, he all but forgot about it. He was so lost in pleasure that he almost didn't notice when his hips were let down again. His eyes, which had fallen closed, slid open halfway to watch as Marduk straddled him. He moaned in anticipation, letting his head fall back against the pillow just as he was encased in tight heat. Instinctively he clenched and the balls pressed hard against that pleasure area.

"Don't make me jealous of some brass balls inside you, Kaito," Gemma commented teasingly as he nipped at the mortal's hard nipples. "You clenched them so tight." Gemma's name came out muffled because of the gag and he thrust up with his hips into the angel. He watched with anticipation as the demon lifted him up until he was half sitting in his lap. "You want something more than these in there? Something different? Something like me?"

He nodded repeatedly, and the balls were pulled out, only for Gemma to thrust into him, hard and fast. Marduk grunted as the thrust was passed through to him, hands reaching out to Kaito's shoulders to steady himself. His own hands, trapped between his back and Gemma's hard stomach, clenched as the rough pace grew half-frantic.

"Shit, I've been holding back way too long today!"

"Even though we had him this morning...I know what you mean."

Kaito thought his stamina was better when he managed to not come the instant Marduk deliberately clenched tight around him. Then the angel smirked, eyes meeting Gemma's over his head. He shouted loudly into the gag as Gemma timed his thrust with Marduk's squeeze. Kaito saw stars as he came hard. His reaction set the other two off.

He basked in the afterglow, not even attempting to move as Marduk pulled the gag off. "Kaito? Are you all right?"

"Yeah...just untie me."

"What? Why?" Gemma asked, clearly disappointed.

Marduk reached around and loosened his bonds. Kaito flexed his wrists, getting feeling back, and pulled himself from both of them. "So I can do this." His fingers dove into Gemma's hair and he kissed his demonic lover with all the passion he was capable of. Gemma squeaked a little, but immediately returned the embrace, tumbling them back against the angel. Marduk wasn't prepared for it, and they tumbled right off the bed with a huge crash.

Kaito laughed, seeing the demon's lustful face. "Damn it, Kaito, you make me so crazy!"

"I know." He abruptly gripped him between his legs. "And I'm not done with you two yet. My turn to run things."

"...I love the results of my corrupting."

Marduk groaned in something that might have been a 'so do I' when Kaito's other hand wrapped around his half-hard erection.


	10. Chapter 10

Kaito had a pit in his stomach, some nameless fear that he'd had since he'd started having dreams. Gemma waved it off, Marduk didn't seem particularly concerned, and all he could do was try to ignore the fact that he feared he had started something inadvertently by picking up that damn sapphire. If he could be sure that it would all stop if he got rid of the gem, he'd do that in an instant. Instead, he headed south toward the jungle. He'd heard it was huge and when it slowly stopped growing south, there was a massive swamp. It was a mire that not only seemed just as endless as the jungle, but was rife with disease. It was what many considered the best barrier between the kingdom of Alender and the Latimor Dominion.

"Were Alender and Latimor always at each other's throats back in Eri's day?" he asked curiously.

"Far as I know," Gemma replied, looking bored. "Never paid much attention to that sort of thing."

"It was through all of Eri's life," Marduk added, "but I don't know how far back it goes. I rarely spent time here in the mortal world before Eri was created."

"It was probably about some sacred artifact or princess or something. Mortals are like that."

"Not all of us are like that, Gemma."

"Who are you kidding, Kaito? Mortals are highly petty. So someone somewhere might have kidnapped a neighboring princess and sacrificed her to some dark god they believe in. Big deal, you can always make another princess with the right people."

"So what exactly could a demon do that would make another demon mortal enemies?"

"Well...it's kind of hard to find something like that. Demons don't trust anyone easily and we're demons. We understand the nature of what we are and so a lot of betrayals are taken in stride. Half the time, something that can cause a huge almost catastrophic fight will all but forgotten in a hundred years or so. There are so many betrayals and switching sides that if we held on to every single time something like that happened, we'd never get anything done."

"So you can't think of anything?"

Gemma frowned. "Okay, well, one thing. If a demon handed over another demon to an angel. That'd make them the most sought after enemy the demons have."

"But Heaven could be considered mortal enemies of Hell, right?"

"Not so much mortal enemies as natural enemies. Angels and demons are the exact opposites. For every rank of angel, there's an equal rank of demon. Angels and demons, archangels and greater demons, and that kind of thing. It's not because they're being handed over that causes the problem, it's because they're being handed over by a _demon_ to an angel. We take betrayals among ourselves and betrayals from mortals in stride because that's the natural order of things; it's bound to happen to eventually and demons are backstabby bastards. A demon handing over another demon to an angel, something that goes against the natural order, against our instincts. We adhere to our more primal nature and that's lying and betraying, and the only constant that we have and hold onto, maybe even called sacred, is that we don't betray ourselves to angels."

"But you and Marduk..."

"What about me and Marduk?"

"Marduk and I," said angel corrected and was summarily ignored.

"Well then doesn't that present problems for you if you're with Marduk?"

"It's certainly not gonna make anybody _happy_ , but I am kind of stuck with him. To them, he's a 'necessary evil'. With Eri, I was _ordered_ to stick around her and make sure she didn't side with Marduk and Heaven. It was sort of a permanent position and one they'd only give to someone as powerful as me because they needed someone able to withstand a fight with an archangel if it got really bad. Now, of course, we're both stuck to your soul and he's a bit inescapable at the moment."

"But what do you think?"

"You mean about Marduk?" Kaito nodded. Gemma shrugged at him. "He's Marduk. What do you want me to say? He just _is_. I'm used to him now and it'd feel...I dunno, lopsided if we wasn't here? He's got a great deal of uses and now that he's got most of that stick out of his ass, he's not a bad guy. I guess...if I'm feeling magnanimous, I'd say he's...a friend. That's not exactly something that demons and angels have experience with."

Kaito turned to Marduk, who had kept silent in their conversation. "What about you, Marduk?"

Marduk tilted his head a little, looking over to Gemma, who appeared to not care whatever he might say. "I have to agree with everything that Gemma said. Gemma is just Gemma and there's no real changing him. He has a lot of knowledge that I don't and vice versa, and has a great deal of uses. I consider him a friend, at least."

"Do you two love each other? At all?"

Gemma slung an arm around his shoulder, pulling him close. "You jealous?" he teased.

"No," Kaito replied frankly. "I just...wondered. You spent a lot of time together, particularly in my soul, and you're in a relationship...of sorts."

"Our love is for you," Marduk told him seriously. "We accept that about each other. As he said, we're inescapable currently and before, it just....happened. Eri refused to take sides and it was pure coincidence that we spoke of our feelings to her at the same time. You know very well what her feelings were and our relationship as you put it just sort of fell into that arrangement."

"Didn't you get upset that you had to share her?"

"At first, yes. Gemma and I were at each other's throats a lot, but I couldn't betray my orders. If I got violent with Gemma, it had to be over Eri's decision in regards to Heaven and Hell, not because of my feelings. So I had to put up with him and eventually...I got used to him."

"Trust me, Marduk was a pain in the ass and half the time I wanted kill him, but I didn't really dare if I'm being honest. At that point, I'd never seen Marduk fight and had no way of judging just how powerful he was. I didn't want to get into a fight I couldn't win. There was also the concern that Eri would throw us both out if we started fighting over her. You never...quite knew with her, what she'd do. Maybe she wouldn't care if we killed each other, or maybe she'd go into a fit over it and get violent with _us_. We already had to put up with each other because of our orders, what was a little more in a relationship?"

"So...how long were you with Eri?"

"Ten years," Marduk answered quietly. "We met her when she was nineteen. Time doesn't mean much to a demon or an angel in Heaven and Hell, but it makes a difference in the mortal world. The longer we were there, the more we felt it, so that by the time ten years had passed, it felt like we'd known each other for a long, long time whereas in truth in comparison to our lifespan, it's nothing at all."

"Do you think Heaven and Hell knew about your relationship with her?"

That caused them both to stop abruptly, as if the thought had never occurred to them. "I...I don't know," Marduk stuttered. "I...I really _hope_ not."

"Why?"

"You kidding? Heaven and Hell'd have a fit," Gemma told him, looking just a little worried. "I just don't know what they'd do, but they wouldn't let it be. I think the only saving grace we have is that they don't know what Eri did and don't know that you're her reincarnation. They might think she's just ceased to exist like she wanted. We've been pretty lucky that we haven't run into any angels yet and the only demon we've met has been Zai. If they figure it out, you'll be in trouble."

Kaito's eyes widened. "Why? I didn't do anything!"

"They'll probably ask you the same question they asked Eri, but if you say no--"

"Of course I'd say no!"

"--I don't think they'd go the route they did last time with Eri," Marduk finished. "You're not as powerful as Eri right now. They might attempt to do something violent."

"Don't worry, though. We're here." Gemma held him tighter, but he didn't sound quite as confident as usual. Kaito wasn't really reassured, but he let the subject drop for the time being as they continued walking. "Why so many questions about Eri?"

"I can't be curious?"

"Well...of course you can, but it's a bit unusual."

He didn't say anything for a minute after Marduk had spoken. "It's just...Eri's a part of me, even though I'm not her. I know a little about her because of the dreams, but while I don't really like her or want to know about her, I want to know about what goes on around her. It could be important. Besides, she's part of your life, whether I want to admit it or not, and _you guys_ I do want to know about."

"How's this: we'll tell you anything you want to know, if you let me fly you."

"What?" he asked, staring at the demon.

"Kaito, do you have any idea how long it's going to take to get to that damn jungle from here? Two months of walking. We can cut that time down if we fly!"

Kaito hesitated. He did really want to get there and find out about this crystal, but he didn't object to walking. "It isn't as if flying is going to get us there within the week or anything."

"Yeah, but we can at least cut that time down by half!"

"You're as impatient as always."

"Shut up, Marduk!"

"I think I'll just walk," Kaito answered. "I'm not in _that_ much of a hurry. Besides, that'd wear you two out. Although this sort of situation really seems to be where a horse would help. Too bad they hate me."

"Let's not go through the almost-trampled thing again," Gemma told him. "I don't know what you did to that horse--"

"I didn't do anything! I swear! It just took an irrational dislike to me!"

"Whatever you say."

~~

It took only about a month and a half to reach the jungle treeline and there were few villages along the path. He couldn't exactly call it a road considering if it was, it was certainly a poor excuse for one. It had petered out from a road to a barely trodden trail since the last small town they'd seen two weeks ago.

"Not particularly welcoming, is it?" Gemma commented.

No, it really wasn't. Kaito looked askance at the jungle and it felt as if he was looking into a maw of darkness. He'd been raised in what most people affectionately entitled grassland country. His village had been on the edge of it, near a fairly sparse forest. For someone that was used to more wide open areas like he was, the place looked distinctly foreboding. Of course Gemma and Marduk wouldn't like it because their wings were less than useless. They'd be more of a hindrance than anything else, because the trees grew so close together the ground was more treeroot than dirt or grass.

"Guys, I think I should do this alone."

"What?!"

"Look at that, Gemma, then tell me that we won't spend half the time trying to help one of you out of a spot because of your wings. They're huge."

"I'm not going anywhere!"

He turned pleadingly to Marduk. "You see my point, don't you?"

Marduk frowned. "I see your point quite clearly and I agree on principle, but I'm certainly not going to let you go in alone."

"Who was it that trained me to fight again? Oh yes, it was _you two_. Don't you trust your own training?" Kaito sighed. "Please don't make me force the issue. Soon as I find the people we're looking for, I'll bring you out again, okay?"

It took another hour of cajoling, because Kaito didn't want to force them back like he had at Glassdell, but finally they agreed. Gemma was not only loud in his dislike of this idea, he probably invented some new curse words just for the situation. Kaito wasn't feeling particularly happy about his plan either. Gemma and Marduk were there, he could always bring them out, but he knew he was right. Didn't make going in there any easier, though.

As soon as he stepped past the treeline and deeper into the jungle, it was as if he'd walked into another world. There were sounds of creatures that he couldn't see that he had no idea what they might be and suddenly every monster from every story he'd ever heard inhabited every shadow he saw. Kaito didn't even know where to go, only that this tribe he was looking for was somewhere before he reached the swamp. The problem was, the jungle stretched for miles and miles according to his map. He didn't even know what direction to start in.

At first, he focused on looking for signs of life, signs that a person had gone through the area, but then realized after three hours the futility of that. If there really were a tribe here, they would have learned to hide the evidence of their existence, wouldn't they? Not only from predators, but from visitors like himself. If a thief really had stolen the sapphire, then they'd be even more on alert. All he was hoping to do was get some answers and maybe they'd be more willing to give that to him if he returned the jewel?

Kaito did more climbing than he wanted, particularly on some of the largest treeroots that blocked his path. They must go down for miles to some underground water source. It was the only explanation for the sheer size of some of the trees. Some must be almost a thousand years old. Now that he was surrounded by the jungle, he had to revise his expectation about how long it would take to find the tribe. He'd been under the assumption that Gemma and Marduk would only have a few hours wait, but now it was looking more like a few days.

The only way he knew when night came was his body sending signals to his brain that he was tired, and the fact that what little light he had to see by was dwindling rapidly. Not knowing what creatures lived in the jungle, much less when, Kaito decided that it was probably best to find a place higher than the ground to sleep. That took climbing up a massive tree until he'd found a decent sized branch that appeared unoccupied. Last thing he wanted to do was sit in someone's nest.

Despite the fact that he felt exhausted after all that climbing, Kaito couldn't sleep. He kept listening to what was going on around him. Just when he thought he might fall asleep, something moved in the undergrowth beneath him. Quietly he peered down and his eyes widened at what he saw. A huge salamander, colored green and brown, meandered below. It's long tongue kept poking out to taste the air as it looked for food. Its height came to Kaito's waist, but the most amazing thing was its length. It was twelve feet long, if one included the tail that suddenly slapped against a bush. Something small scurried out, something that Kaito couldn't see, and that head whipped around fiercely to grab at it. Whatever it was, the salamander got its meal and slowly moved on.

That was only the first night. After seeing that, Kaito refused to even condone the idea of sleeping on the ground. Three days in and he was already feeling lonely, but Marduk and Gemma had kept their word about waiting for him to call them out. He almost wished they wouldn't because some company to break up the monotony of animal sounds in the jungle would have been welcomed.

Kaito stretched and winced as his back protested painfully on the fourth morning. He was really getting tired of sleeping in trees, and it had rained the night before. It had been a downpour and he'd huddled deeper into his leather coat, but it hadn't done a lick of good. He'd still been soaked and miserable all night long. At what point he'd fallen asleep was a mystery.

As he made to climb down, his foot slipped against the slick bark and he let out a yelp as he began to fall. That fall was abruptly arrested as both his wrists were grabbed without warning. Blinking, Kaito looked up to meet Marduk and Gemma's frustrated glares.

"What the fuck is all this?! You don't call us out for days and when we come out on our own, we find you're about to plummet out of a damn tree?!"

"I didn't mean to fall, it was just that it rained last night," he complained, not liking hanging there, but there was no way for Gemma and Marduk to pull him back up. The branch just wouldn't hold the weight of three people even if there were room.

"How are we going to get him down?"

"Shit, I don't know. I'm still wondering why the hell Kaito hasn't found that damn tribe yet."

"...Guys..."

"What?"

Kaito's staring past them made Marduk and Gemma glance over their shoulders. What could only be three tribesmen were staring at the mistrustfully. One held a spear, and two others had bows drawn and ready. They didn't quite look like how Kaito had been expecting. Sure they had very little clothing, but there were no odd piercings like bones through their lips or anything. They looked...surprisingly normal.

"It appears as if they found us."

"You really think so, Marduk?" Gemma spat sarcastically.

"Um...we've got your crystal and I wanted to ask some questions about it," Kaito attempted, hoping they understood his language. Given the lack of recognition on their faces, he'd say not. "Marduk, don't let go."

"What are you doing?"

Kaito shook off Gemma's hand despite the demon's protest and hunted around his pockets. When he found the sapphire, he waved it at the tribesmen. That got their attention all right and they spoke among each other. Marduk grunted a bit and Gemma grabbed his wrist again before he started to slip any further down.

One of the tribesmen gestured to them to follow, despite the unfriendly look on his face. Rather than climbing down, they jumped from branch to branch. "Shit, I was afraid of that," the demon muttered and very carefully they began to pull Kaito up. Marduk had to jump to a nearby branch halfway through so that their smaller lover could actually get something under his feet.

There was the sound of annoyance from one of the tribesmen and they gestured a bit more emphatically. Gemma didn't seem to care that they didn't understand as he spat, "We're coming, we're coming, fuck off."

"Gemma..."

"What?!"

Kaito and Marduk merely sighed and followed the path through the trees. More than once one of them slipped and had to be helped up. Even his graceful angelic lover was no exception. In fact, Marduk had the worst time of it because he was the largest of all of them. Now that they were closer, Kaito could tell the tribesmen were far smaller and slimmer, able to move at amazing speeds. It was almost as if they were moving on the air itself, just very lightly touching the branches. By the time five hours had passed, Kaito was seriously considering ditching his boots because maybe this would be easier without them.

"Oh thank Satan, we're here."

Kaito stared. There was indeed a tribe, and a large one at that. They had taken residence in the thickest part of the jungle, spread out like a city above the ground. The branches were so thick in this area that he could almost walk normally and in the places where there was a sizable gap, planks had been put down.

A spear tip poked his back, telling him to move, and he did so without complaint despite Marduk and Gemma's sudden bad temper. They were stared at by the rest of the tribe, as if they were some sort of attraction, but when someone approached closer, one of their 'guides' said something in a sharp tone and they backed off instantly.

They were brought to what Kaito assumed was the center of their... What did he call it? Village? Town? City? Marduk and Gemma were muttering to themselves, attempting to get comfortable because of their wings, and didn't _that_ make their audience twitter. More than a few people tried to reach out and touch the feathers, but Gemma's reaction the first time someone succeeded kept the rest at bay. Gemma didn't take his wings being touched lightly and Kaito had been the only thing keeping those swords in their sheathes.

The crowd around them parted, allowing an older man to approach. He appeared like everyone else, except in addition to his loincloth, he wore a brown cloak that looked nice and surprisingly comfortable. Kaito envied it instantly, given that he was still shivering and wet from last night. Tattoos were traced on his face and he assumed that meant that this man had a rank of sorts.

"You've come a long way."

Kaito did a double take at hearing his language come out of the man's mouth. There was a deep accent to it, but he could easily be understood. "Oh thank god. I was worrying how I was going to talk to someone."

"I traveled when I was a young man to many different places. It's expected of someone that is to be the next Shaman. I've had many different experiences with many different kinds of people and that is the only reason you're standing here right now."

"We heard about the theft of your sapphire," Kaito said, quickly relating how it had got into his hands.

"And I have been told you have it."

Kaito dug in his pocket again and immediately handed it over. "I came wanting to know about it."

The jewel disappeared inside the cloak instantly and most everyone seemed to relax a little. "Why?"

He looked around nervously. "Not to insult or anything, but can we maybe do this somewhere a little more private? I'm really not used to being stared at like this."

"We are really not used to seeing an angel or a demon."

"You know--"

"I know what they are, yes. As I said, I came across many different people." The Shaman gestured to them to follow, pausing only to say something when a guard protested. Kaito couldn't understand it, but whatever he said, it had a shocking effect on the people around them. Suddenly they were welcomed as if they were long lost family. Did the jewel really mean that much to them?

They were led to a large hut, big enough that even Marduk and Gemma could enter. Still, inside was cramped because there appeared to be many religious items scattered around. Most of the only area to sit in was in a small area in the center of the room. The Shaman sat down on a rug that he couldn't guess what it was made from.

"Please sit."

"Um..." He looked at Marduk and Gemma.

"Oh hell fucking no, I'm not going anywhere," was the flat reply from the demon. "Fuck that."

"Marduk?" The silence and crossing of arms was all he needed to know.

"It appears as if you'll have to squeeze together to fit." There was a smile on the Shaman's lips, as if he were finding intense amusement at their dilemma.

After a lot of shifting and more than a few blunders where they almost destroyed a stone totem, Kaito ended up sitting in Marduk's lap as the angel and the demon were literally hip to shoulder. Their wings were clamped so closely that no matter how he moved, he was brushing against someone's.

"...So what did you want to ask?"

Kaito could have sworn he almost heard the sound of laughter in that voice, but decided not to call the man on it. "About that sapphire..."

"What about it?"

"Well...what is it? When we had it, I kept having dreams of a past life when I slept. It only stopped when Marduk put a barrier around it at night."

"You did, hm?" The man pulled the sapphire out and set it on the floor in front of him. "Before I explain, might I know your names?"

"Oh sorry! I'm Kaito, Marduk is the one holding me and the other is Gemma."

"Pleased to meet you. You may call me Tatari." His attention turned back to the jewel. "This tribe has existed for eons, Kaito. For all that time, we have had a ritual that Shamans perform. We call it dreamwalking. Using an uncut and pure gem as a focus, it allows us to see our past, travel into others dreams, and with practice, even affect them. When I was younger, I was afflicted with nightmares the like of which you cannot imagine and more than once, my predecessor had to dreamwalk into my sleep and change my dreams so that I might have some rest."

"That's amazing...but I don't know how to do any of that."

"Please let me finish. This sapphire," Tatari touched it with the tip of his finger respectfully, "has been used almost as long as this tribe has existed. I suspect that it has absorbed some of the magic over time that we used when we performed the ritual. With a magically sensitive person, or one such as you that has so _much_ magic, that would touch what is already emanating from the jewel. It is either that...or some part of you really wanted to dreamwalk and that subconscious desire touched the absorbed magic and caused that to happen."

He'd wanted to dreamwalk? He couldn't remember thinking that he wanted to know about his past. "I don't think that's the case..." he muttered slowly.

"So there was nothing you wanted to know about yourself?"

"What?"

"Dreamwalking is a way to give answers. If you saw your past, then that means there must have been something that you wanted the answer to. That answer was inside you, the magic was just giving you the means to see it."

Well, he had wanted to know how Gemma and Marduk had become attached to him. "I did have a few questions," he hedged. "Would that dreamwalking have continued if Marduk hadn't shielded it?"

"Most likely. Were you a member of my tribe, you would be chosen as my successor because you have an aptitude for it, apparently, but that would take a great deal of training. Most likely it would be quite random. You might be taken into your companions dreams next, or perhaps back into your own past. It's hard to say at this point."

"If you have it, when we leave, he won't be doing any dreamwalking, will he?" Marduk asked.

"No."

"Well at least that means we can get some sleep again. Right, Kaito?" Gemma leered a little and Kaito blushed and glared.

"You have a long road ahead of you, Kaito."

He blinked, attention drawn back to Tatari. "What?"

"I can see what you are, Kaito, and that your angel and demon are attached to your soul. That is a benefit to dreamwalking: we see other things that others don't after many years of experience. Those of your power are never left to live peaceful lives. Things will be drawn to you, maybe things that you won't like. I don't know what they are, but keep this in mind."

"...I will," he said miserably.

"Now, please stay as long as you like. Tonight we will have a feast in your honor."

"Wait, what?"

Tatari stood and smiled down at them. "You have returned something very precious to us, something we had never expected to see again. We are in your debt and it is the least that we can do." He shouted something in his own language and a young woman appeared. She wore only a loincloth, no covering of her chest, as if it didn't occur to her to do so. She said something, Tatari replied back, and then she bowed to them deeply.

"Katalai will show you to your quarters. I'm sure you would like to change, you are quite damp and the rain was hard last night."

Before Kaito could protest, the young woman was pulling at his hand and dragging him along. Tatari was smiling indulgently, like a foolish uncle. The hut they were led to next was even larger than where they had come from and this time, it had plenty of room for all three of them, wings included. There was a plush bed, lots of rugs, and decorations lined the walls.

"Thank...you..."

He spun in shock, staring at the girl. "You speak my language?!"

She was staring at him closely, clearly listening intently. After a minute, she nodded. "Little. Shaman teach. Soon leave."

"You are his successor?"

Katalai seemed to have trouble understanding Marduk. Pointing at herself, she said, "Next Shaman."

"This is a great room," Gemma commented, having ignored the conversation up until that point. He touched one of the fur wall hangings appreciatively. It was dyed in various shades of red, though what made it looked to be a cross between a lion and...something else entirely. Something with tusks.

She nodded. "Joining room."

"What?!"

"Joining." She seemed to think, under the impression that Kaito didn't understand what she meant. "Mating. Wed...wed..."

"Wedding?" Marduk suggested, looking a little pale.

Katalai nodded happily. She tilted her head as someone called something and ducked out after a bow. After a minute, Tatari entered. "Katalai says you like the room."

"Wait-wait-wait-wait!" Kaito interrupted. "Wedding room?!"

"It is the place that a consummation takes place. You are more than welcome if you see someone you like and they are willing to share this with you."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not marrying anyone!"

Tatari laughed. "I had not intended that. This is merely the most comfortable hut we have and the only one available. It would please me, however, if you felt comfortable enough in our home to indulge yourself."

"Oh we'll indulge all right." Gemma wrapped his arms intimately around Kaito and nipped his ear.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't want...to bring it up in case it bothered you. We're...well..."

Tatari smiled. "As I have said, I have seen many different things in my time. I have even partaken in a few sexual encounters with both men and women that were not...strictly natural. Regardless of your affections, I wish you to be comfortable here."

"Does that sapphire mean that much to you?"

The Shaman nodded at Marduk. "It is almost the focal point of our history. Perhaps the most important thing in our entire tribe. It may not look like much, but over time it has become part of our identity. That you returned it, that you thought to ask where, is a miracle to us."

Kaito smiled at the genuine gratitude of Tatari. It more than made up for the reaction they'd got at Glassdell. Tatari knew what he was and had welcomed him regardless. They were being treated as members of their tribe. It wasn't the gifts or the treatment that really made Kaito happy, it was the sincere feelings he was given in return.

"We will have a feast in a few hours. Would you like us to show you to a place you can bathe?"

"Actually...I'm pretty wet as it is. I'd just like to dry off."

"Would you like me to have someone assist you?"

"I appreciate the offer, really, but if you could just bring me a towel or something..."

"As you wish." Tatari stepped out and Katalai entered a moment later with something very soft and fluffy. It was pale brown and thankfully had no identifying features such a head or paws. Respectfully she stepped back out again without a word.

"I like these people," Gemma abruptly declared as Kaito undressed and began to dry himself. Marduk loosened his braid and began to brush the damp strands with his fingers without a word.

Kaito smiled softly. "So do I. I want to come back when we leave."

"Do you have any dry clothes?"

Gemma went looking through Kaito's bag at Marduk's question. "I'd _love_ to say no, because Satan knows that I want to see him in a loincloth, but there's a pair of pants and a shirt in here."

"...Pity."

"Marduk!"

But the angel was smiling at him and Kaito couldn't help smiling back. This was the most relaxed the three of them had been since before he'd had any dreams at all. He could forget Tatari's words for a moment and just relax with his lovers around people that honestly cared.

Kaito didn't let Gemma dress him, because he knew if he did, he'd never end up dressed at all. He had to fight off wandering hands and the only saving grace was that his stomach growled loudly just before Katalai returned. "Food!"

"Great!" They shared a mutual grin of excitement and he ignored Gemma's slightly jealous grumble.

She led them back to the center of the village and he couldn't help but stare. It was one of those salamander creatures. How the hell had they got it up into the trees?!

"It is the best meat in the jungle," Tatari told him, abruptly showing up and making Kaito jump. "The hunting party was some of the best we have and it was a hefty task."

"You didn't have to go to _that_ much trouble..."

Tatari smirked a little at him and called to someone. A few fighters peeled away from the mob of people working on skinning the carcass. There was an exchange of words and the shaman said, "They wish for me to tell you that they relished the challenge. This salamander was a young, fierce fighter in his prime. Most they fight are older, with not much life left. It is our custom to not take many in their prime of life to keep the balance."

"Well...great job..." he said, still stunned at the amount of work it must have taken to bring the beast down.

When Tatari related his praise, there were huge grins and four of the group nudged a fifth, who seemed to fidget a little in embarrassment. He muttered something, causing Tatari to smile the largest, white-toothed grin he'd ever seen. "Dakar landed the final blow. It was his first hunt." Dakar muttered something else and Tatari laughed a little. "He wishes me to tell you that he is aware of where you are staying and that he finds your looks exotic. If it pleases you, he is willing."

Kaito blushed to the roots of his hair. Other than Isabel, no one but Gemma and Marduk had ever really shown an interest in him. Or if they did, he was too dense to notice. "Uh...could you tell him thanks, but..."

Tatari nodded and whatever he said didn't seem to leave any hard feelings. In fact, another warrior leaned over and whispered something in his ear, causing the young fighter to blush as badly as Kaito had. "What happened?"

"It appears as if Dakar is going to be initiated tonight by Yeleni."

"You mean he was..."

"A young warrior does not usually engage in sexual activities until after his first hunt. It is a matter of pride, that they have proven their strength to others first."

There was a shout of glee, drawing their attention back the center of the village where there was a carefully constructed, large firepit. The salamander had been skinned. Its colors were a brilliant red and gold and even from here, the scales seemed to shine in the firelight.

"They wish to present it to you as a gift," Tatari translated.

"Thanks, but I couldn't possibly take it!" Kaito protested. "It's not that I don't want it, trust me, I love it, but I travel too much to carry a huge salamander skin like that around with me!"

Tatari laughed. "Neither do we, Kaito. We will make something for you out of it. Perhaps a belt and something to protect you from the rain."

"Oh, in that case, I'll take it! I get tired of getting really wet!"

There was raucous laughter at that translation and Kaito couldn't help grinning like a loon. A feast was apparently not just a feast to this tribe. It was a massive party and perhaps a bit of an orgy on the side, given more than a few amorous hands as the meat was cooked. Behavior was still appropriate levels, he didn't see anyone disappear, but it was fairly obvious more than a few had bedmates that night.

Several women and a few men began carrying huge jugs out from somewhere deeper in the village than he'd seen. When the lid was opened, he peered inside and stared at some red liquid. Tatari was a fixture at his side all through the night, explaining without needing to be asked. "We make it from berries that grow near the swamp. They are quite prolific there. It is similar to wine."

"By the way, I never asked what your tribe was called."

"Beku."

"Not exactly an epic name," Gemma commented, but Tatari just smiled and didn't take offense.

Torches were lit around the huge gathering as night fell and the feast began in earnest. Kaito was a tad embarrassed at the treatment he was getting, but attempted to take it in stride. No one would eat a bite until he took the first as their guest of honor. It was actually surprisingly good. Certain parts were tougher than others, attesting to the power the salamander had in its body, and other parts were far more tender. The wine was plentiful and before he knew it, Kaito was pleasantly tipsy.

He was still aware enough that when night grew deeper and he began to head back to his room that all eyes were on him to see who went with him. Gemma and Marduk stepped in after and out of the corner of his eye, Kaito caught Katalai saying something to someone else that quickly got around the campfire. Knowing looks were sent their way and he blushed deeper.

"Now these mortals I can really like," Gemma commented as he drew the fur curtain closed over the doorway to the hut.

"They have far better reactions than the Glassdell guard," Marduk agreed.

"Makes you feel appreciated," Kaito replied, checking his leather coat. It was still a tad damp, but far better than before.

"I'll make you feel appreciated," the demon murmured, abruptly pressing against Kaito's back.

"Gemma...you know they're all out there, don't you?"

"They want us to have sex! You don't want to disappoint them, do you?"

"Gemma..." he moaned a tiny bit of protest when sharp teeth nipped his neck.

"We haven't seen or touched you for days," Marduk reminded him, hands slipping underneath Kaito's shirt. "You can't expect us to leave you alone in this comfortable room, do you?"

His clothes were dropped in record time and Kaito could be heard moaning even from outside as he was lovingly prepared. There were no totems or anything in the room that had something that appeared like a face, not like some of the masks in Tatari's room, so Kaito could relax. Perhaps it was something about the wine, but he was far more relaxed than he'd ever been before, enough to actually take the reins.

He slipped over Marduk's clothed lap, earning a groan from his angelic lover as he slowly loosened them. "Are you hiding this hard cock from me, Marduk?"

"He gets surprisingly smutty when he's somewhat drunk," Gemma commented, pushing his fingers deeper into Kaito and earning a whine of enjoyment.

"Who's fault is that?" Marduk countered, hissing when Kaito's fingers pressed on his tip.

"I'll be happy to take all the credit for that. So, Kaito, who gets to have you first?" the demon asked in a sultry tone.

"You do."

"Why is that?"

Kaito mock pouted at Marduk beneath him. "Because he was hiding this thick, throbbing erection from me."

"Should have got your pants off faster, Marduk."

"As if I could with him in my lap!" The angel bit his lip when Gemma straddled his knees behind the smaller mortal and lifted his hips.

"You're gonna watch, Marduk," Kaito muttered, bracing himself over the man beneath him and forcing him to lie back against the rugs on the floor because of it.

Gemma gleefully pushed in as soon as he finished the preparation and quickly set up a hard pace. Not known for being quiet when sober, Kaito had even less control of keeping silent when he was half-drunk. The only time his sounds were cut off was when Marduk molested his mouth with an eager and desperate tongue. Kaito yanked those pants down as far as he could before he started kissing down the angel's neck.

"Gemma... Gemma, please move him back!"

"Oh? Why?" the demon panted, but his eyes were knowing.

"I want... I want his mouth..."

"What do you think, Kaito?"

There was a moan of agreement and Gemma yanked his lover back before bending him over again, his hand gently guiding that head down between Marduk's legs. "All yours, Kaito."

Kaito sucked hard and enthusiastically and Marduk was pliable beneath him. He shouted just a little when fingers slid inside, urging him to release, but it was Kaito that came first regardless. It didn't seem to bother the mortal the way it had before and instead, just urged them on for more. That night, the multiple times they shared, was not so much wild, as merely deeply intense, and Kaito was exhausted as he cuddled between them, completely content.


	11. Chapter 11

It was hard to resist the urge to just stay with the Beku. They treated him like he was family and there were more than a few men and women interested in him, flattering even though he wouldn't take them up on the offer. He felt a tad guilty that he was causing a huge disruption in their daily lives as they tried to cater to him and that was perhaps the only reason he left after two days. Even Marduk and Gemma's discomfort thanks to their wings hadn't really factored into his decision to leave.

He were escorted to the edge of the forest and it took only half a day. Given the four days that Kaito had stumbled around aimlessly, this was a vast improvement. Tatari had promised him that if he ever returned, they'd find him and immediately bring him back for a visit. They had reverently made a protective cloak from the tough hide of the salamander they'd brought down for the feast and it not only protected him from the rain, but it was surprisingly resilient to blades. It's colors seemed even brighter outside of the forest where direct sunlight could glint off the scales. He kept it in his pack when he wasn't using it, both to discourage bandits and because it could be a tad heavy to wear all the time.

Yet none of that could distract him from what Tatari had told him: whether he wanted it or not, things were going to find him because of what he was. Kaito didn't _feel_ as powerful as everyone said that he was; he felt surprisingly normal. He knew he had magic, could feel it in his fingertips even though he very rarely used it, but he always assumed that was what anyone with a bit of power felt. According to everyone else, though, it was like standing next to a tornado, being buffeted by what he was radiating.

"Can you teach me how to suppress my power?" he asked out of the blue.

Gemma blinked at the abrupt question as they found the path again that would lead to the road. "What?"

"I want to learn to suppress my power. You said that Eri could do it. No one could find her for almost eighteen years, right?"

"That's true, but I'm not sure that we can teach you that," Marduk said hesitantly. "Your power is...something wholly different than ours. It might have started out as an equal amount of angelic and demonic magic, but when you were reborn, that changed into...something else. You have far more control over it now than you did when you were Eri. It could be because that it is somehow 'less pure' now, thanks to your rebirth."

"So I'm less powerful."

"Definitely no," Gemma told him. "You're as powerful as ever, but it's...different. It's probably because they've begun to merge a little that it's easier to control?"

"We really don't know what else to tell you," Marduk finished. "Suffice it to say, I honestly don't believe that it is possible to mask that much power. Eri did it, but I can't tell you _how_."

He let that information sink in, trying to stem his disappointment. "How am I ever going to do anything with this power? If I can't even suppress it, how can I control it?"

"I don't know why you even care about that," the demon told him, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Does it matter if you can suppress it?"

"Yes, it matters, Gemma! If I can, maybe all these 'powerful things' Tatari was talking about, like angels and demons, won't notice me. Also, I have all this magic and I can't really do anything with it. I've never so much as used a fireball."

"You use magic a helluva lot when you've ascended."

"But I don't even know how to get to that on purpose!"

Marduk held his shoulder, stopping their progress. "What's brought this on, Kaito? You've never minded your current state before."

"It's just...I don't know. I've been thinking that there's something wrong with me the way I am now. I feel normal, but everyone says I'm so powerful. If I'm that powerful, shouldn't I be able to do more? I'd at least like to be able to do something vaguely impressive if people are going to be coming after me."

"There's nothing wrong with you the way you are now. We like you, the way you are now," the angel murmured to him, softly kissing his lips. "Do you not like yourself like this?"

"Of course I do, and I'd rather not change--"

"Then don't," Gemma stated, his tone of one that said 'end of discussion'. "No one is pushing you to change, so stay that way."

A little relieved, Kaito sighed and silently agreed. Far above, unknown to the trio, someone flew away.  
~~

"E-Excuse me, a-are you a mercenary?"

Kaito turned, hands full of his new travel rations, to look at the young, slim man that was nervously staring at him. His hair was an inky black, a tad greasy, and he seemed to fidget as if he couldn't wait to just run away. "Yes. You need something?"

They had paused in a small town to replenish supplies and had decided, barely, that it was safer if he just went in by himself. Despite Marduk and Gemma's orders to forget about it, the Glassdell city guard's reactions and orders were still fresh in Kaito's mind. Perhaps he cared a little too much for what people thought, at least moreso than his lovers did, but he didn't want to cause any problems.

"I-I need to hire you then."

"For...?"

Beady eyes glanced around, but no one was paying them any attention. Did the man have some reason that he was being paranoid? Kaito looked around too, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then again, Kaito didn't understand the concept of being paranoid, really. Maybe it came from always having Gemma and Marduk around, but he knew he could take care of himself so why worry if people were after him? Besides, he hadn't done anything worthy of being paranoid about.

"There's this...mage...near the village."

"So?"

The man stared at him, as if he hadn't expected that reaction. Was he expecting Kaito to just say 'how much' and what he wanted done? Kaito didn't work that way. He wanted to know just what the problem was and then determine whether he wanted to take the job, much less anything else.

"Her focus is in dark magic and she's been sacrificing all kinds of animals over the years. Now my nephew went missing and I swear that I saw her digging a hole in her back garden that was the right size for a grave!"

He frowned. He didn't like the sound of that at all. "Have you talked to her about it? Asked her what she was digging?"

"Of course! She threatened to kill me if I didn't leave!"

Kaito thought about it, a tad hesitant. There was just something about the squirrely man that put him off just a little, but if there was even a shred of truth in what he was saying, then it wasn't something that could be ignored. Anyone who sacrificed a child had to be dealt with. Whether that was through death or not didn't matter.

"I'll look into it."

The man smiled in relief and dug out a small coinpurse from his shirt. "Here, take however much you like. Just bring justice to my nephew!"

"Where does she live?"

"In a house outside of town. There's a small trail leading off the main road south."

Kaito packed his rations away and headed out. Marduk and Gemma appeared after a few minutes and he told his lovers what he'd got into. "I don't know, it just feels... _off_ somehow."

"Then why'd you take it?"

"You need to ask? Gemma, if he's telling the truth and she really is sacrificing children, I have to stop her!"

"Agreed," Marduk seconded, a dark look on his face at the prospect. "Sometimes humans can be just as demonic as devils."

"I'm always outnumbered," Gemma mock-complained.

It didn't take long to find the house that the man spoke of and Kaito stared at it. It wasn't exactly something that he expected an evil mage to be living in. It was a modest two-story affair, with a luscious garden of flowers and herbs that stretched from the front of the dwelling all the way to the back, or so he assumed. Whoever she was, she had a great touch because everything looked very healthy. The breeze ruffled the curtains of the open windows. The more he looked, though, the more it became obvious that there were no animals around. Either she didn't want any trampling through her garden, or she had killed them.

"Bit more cheerful than I was expecting, but that is one way to hide," the demon commented. "Evil beings that last for any length of time are often smart and no better way to survive to do their schemes is to pretend they're normal and wholesome, if not enlightened by good."

Kaito frowned and stepped forward, knocking purposefully on the closed door. There were the sounds of muffled movement from inside before it opened with a 'woosh'. "Yes?" The face that looked back at him was very pretty, with soft golden brown hair and gentle dark eyes. Her clothes were well-made, though not expensive by any means, and a smell of a fruit pie wafted out the door from inside the house.

That welcoming expression faded almost instantly as she stared at him, right at his face. Replacing that smile was fear and she stepped back once, then twice. "W-What is this?"

That wasn't the reaction he was expecting. "Excuse me?"

"W-Who sent you? I-I didn't do anything!"

"The hell is all this about?" Gemma asked as his lovers finally approached behind at the odd stalemate they were in on her doorstep.

She continued to almost plead her case at him, despite Kaito's dumbfounded expression. "I swear I'm nothing, I'm just a hedge witch. Whatever you're here for, I didn't do it!"

"Please calm down," Marduk told her, as perplexed as the rest of them. "We just came to talk."

She looked at them nervously. "Then why is he--"

"Oh that. Don't mind Kaito, that's when his power is contained," Gemma said, flicking his wrist and dismissing the rest of that thought. "He's not doing that to intimidate you, he just is. Can't sneak up on a mage fifty miles away!"

"...Oh..." Her shoulders relaxed a little. "Then...what is it?"

"I don't suppose you know what I'm talking about when I ask if you sacrificed and buried a child to a dark god or something?" Kaito asked.

She frowned. "I know what you're talking about at least, but I think you're looking for the wrong person. Did a man that looks nervous around crowds, young and skinny, approach you?"

"Yes."

"That's Tethel. What you need to know is that there are two mages near this village and one of them has been here for a few hundred years and is not me. I moved here a few years ago and I'm mostly just a midwife and healer with herbs. I don't have much power, but apparently Tethel doesn't care for my presence. The 'nephew' he spoke of is actually not a child and was his apprentice. There was a horrible accident with a spell gone awry and he brought him to me as a last resort, after everything he tried failed. It was too late by that point and I couldn't save him. Now he's holding a grudge and has been trying to get rid of me."

"Petty evil then. Hardly worth the effort."

Kaito ignored Gemma. "So no one is sacrificing children?"

"Not that I'm aware of. If Tethel did, it was before the village popped up and he could get away with it, but I think he knows if he starts doing that, he'd have a lot of problems. He's lived for several hundred years, he didn't get that way by being stupid."

"It appears as if we have to have a chat with this man," Marduk said in a grim tone.

"Definitely. We're sorry to have bothered you."

"I'm sorry that he's drawn you into this petty vendetta of his."

As they walked away from the house, Kaito didn't have time to wonder where Tethel lived because said man came running up to him from where he'd been lurking nearby. "Why didn't you kill her?! I paid you to kill her!"

Gone was the nervous paranoia and instead, a confident man that was a tad arrogant. Kaito threw the bag of coin back at him. "You lied and I'm not your trained monkey."

"You're a mercenary, you follow orders!"

"Enough!" he spat, pulling out his pistol. "I accept you lied, but don't you ever assume that I'll just follow anyone's orders because someone told me to. I think for myself and I'll do something because I want to. I won't bow to pressure, you hear me?"

The man glowered, but was sufficiently cowed by the gun to not say anything.

"Now listen up. Stop harassing her. She's not hurting anyone. Maybe you acted out of grief, I don't know, but just stop this. I'm not taking your money and this is over. Understand?"

"Fine, but don't expect that you'll always get your way. There are some people that you can't bully, just because you have all that power."

Kaito put his gun away and glared at the man's retreating back. "I can't believe I was tricked."

"Well not entirely. You knew something was wrong with the man."

"That's not the point, Gemma. Remember what Tatari said? People would use me for my power. Not only because I'm a mercenary, but you know that he wanted me to scare her off just by my power alone, whether I knew it or not."

"Stop worrying, for fuck's sake. We're here and we'll always be here so if you get into a scrape you can't get out of..."

Kaito sighed. "I'm learning things are never that simple."

Their arms went around him, but they couldn't dispel the increasing knot of fear in his gut.


End file.
